mlliuM 


A3/.Z*. 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,     N.     J. 


Presented  by 


r  r\ 


BR  85  .M75  1905 

M  uller,  F.  Max  1823-1900 

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Life  and  religion 


LIFE  AND   RELIGION 


Life  and  Religion 

An   Aftermath    from   the   Writings   of   the 
Right  Honourable  Professor 

F.    MAX^MULLER 


BY  HIS  WIFE 

[Gr.M.Muller] 


y0k\  OF  mUg^ 
JAN  31  1924 


New  York 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

1905 


Copyright,   1905,  by 

Doubleday,    Page  &c  Company 

Published,  September,  1905 


All  rights  restrved, 

including  that  of  translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian. 


ram.  world's  work  frbss,  new  york 


PREFACE 

This  book  has  been  prepared  in  accordance 
with  a  wish  expressed  by  many  known  and  un- 
known admirers  of  my  husband's  writings  who 
desire  to  possess  in  portable  form  the  various 
striking  passages  in  his  different  works  and  in  the 
"Life  and  Letters"  that  have  specially  appealed 
to   them. 

I  have  taken  the  opportunity  of  adding  extracts 
from  many  private  letters,  and  from  the  writings 
he  left  unfinished — passages  that  would  otherwise 
have  remained  unknown  to  any  but  his  own  family 
and  a  few  intimate  friends. 

Those  who  have  read  the  "Life  and  Letters" 
do  not  need  to  be  told  that  Max  Miiller  entertained 
from  his  earliest  years  the  firm  conviction  that 
all  is  wisely  ordered  in  this  life,  "all  for  our  real 
good,  though  we  do  not  always  see  it,  and  though 
we  cannot  venture  to  fathom  the  wisdom  guiding 
our  steps."  To  other  readers  the  unswerving 
trust  and  faith  shown  in  these  extracts  may  be  a 
revelation,  for  he  rarely  conversed  on  such  sub- 
jects. Yet  this  trust  and  faith  gave  him  strength 
through  the  bitter  struggles  of  his  early  life,  taught 


vi  PREFACE 

him  resignation  during  the  years  when  the  dearest 
wish  of  his  heart  seemed  unattainable,  supported 
him  later  when  those  whom  he  loved  tenderly 
were  taken  from  him,  and  upheld  him  in  his  long 
and  depressing  illness. 

It  is  my  earnest  desire  that  this  little  book  may 
prove  a  help  and  comfort  to  those  who  endure 
like  trials,  and  that  it  may  strengthen  those  whose 
path  in  life  now  stretches  before  them,  filled  with 
sunshine,  to  meet  the  sorrows  that  inevitably  await 
us  all. 

Georgina  Max  Muller. 

June  ii,  1905. 


CONTENTS 


The  Art  of  Life  . 

The  Beautiful      . 

The  Bible  . 

Children     . 

Christ.    The  Logos 

Christianity 

Death 

The  Deity. 

The  Divine 

Doubts 

Evolution  of  Religion 

Faith 

The  Fatherhood  of  God 

Future  Life 

The  Infinite 

Knowledge 

Language  . 

Life 

Love 

Mankind    . 


3 

6 

8 

14 
15 
23 
36 

47 
60 

63 
69 

73 
76 

77 
90 

99 
102 
106 
124 

132 


Vlll 


CONTENTS— Continued 


Mind  or  Thought 

Miracles 

Music 

Nature 

Obscurity  . 

Old  Age     . 

Religion  and  Religions 

Revelation . 

The  Rig-Veda     . 

Science 

The  Self     . 

Sorrow  and  Suffering 

The  Soul    . 

Theosophy 

Truth 

The  Will  of  God 

Wonder 

Words 

Work 

The  World 


Page 

135 
138 
141 
142 

145 
I46 
I48 
187 
I92 
193 

195 
20I 

211 
2l8 
220 
225 
228 
230 
232 
235 


LIFE  AND    RELIGION 


THE  ART  OF  LIFE 

To  learn  to  understand  one  another  is  the 
great  art  of  life,  and  to  "agree  to  differ"  is  the 
best  lesson  of  the  comparative  science  of  religion. 

Silesian  Horseherd. 

There  is  a  higher  kind  of  music  which  we  all 
have  to  learn,  if  our  life  is  to  be  harmonious, 
beautiful,  and  useful.  There  are  certain  intervals 
between  the  young  and  the  old  which  must  be 
there,  which  are  meant  to  be  there,  without  which 
life  would  be  monotonous;  but  out  of  these  inter- 
vals and  varieties,  the  true  art  of  life  knows  how 
to  build  up  perfect  harmonies.  .  .  .  Even 
great  sorrow  may  be  a  blessing,  by  drawing  some 
of  our  affections  away  from  this  life  to  a  better 
life  ...  of  which,  it  is  true,  we  know  noth- 
ing, but  from  which,  when  we  see  the  wisdom  and 
love  that  underlie  this  life,  we  may  hope  every- 
thing. We  are  meant  to  hope  and  to  trust,  and 
that  is  often  much  harder  than  to  see,  and  to  know. 
.  .  .  The  greatest  of  all  arts  is  the  art  of  life, 
and  the  best  of  all  music  the  harmony  of  spirits. 

3 


4  LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

There  are  many  little  rules  to  be  learnt  for  giving 
harmony  and  melody  to  our  life,  but  the  thorough 
bass  must  be — love.  Life. 


One  thing  is  necessary  above  all  things  in  order 
to  live  peaceably  with  people;  that  is,  in  Latin, 
Humanitas,  German,  Menschlichkeit.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  describe,  but  it  is  to  claim  as  little  as 
possible  from  others,  neither  an  obliging  temper 
nor  gratitude,  and  yet  to  do  all  one  can  to  please 
others,  yet  without  expecting  them  always  to  find 
it  out.  As  men  are  made  up  of  contradictions, 
they  are  the  more  grateful  and  friendly  the  less 
they  see  that  we  expect  gratitude  and  friendliness. 
Even  the  least  cultivated  people  have  their  good 
points,  and  it  is  not  only  far  better  but  far  more 
interesting  if  one  takes  trouble  to  find  out  the 
best  side  and  motives  of  people,  rather  than  the 
worst  and  most  selfish.  .  .  .  Life  is  an  art, 
and  more  difficult  than  Sanscrit  or  anything  else. 

Ibid. 

We  become  chiefly  what  we  are  more  through 
others  than  through  ourselves,  and  happy  is  the 
man  whose  path  in  life  leads  him  only  by  good 
men,  and  brings  him  together  with  good  men. 
How  often  we  forget  in  judging  others  the  influ- 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION  5 

ences  under  which  they  have  grown  up.  How 
can  one  expect  a  child  to  be  truthful  when  he  sees 
how  servants,  yes,  often  parents,  practise  deceit. 
How  many  children  hear  from  those  to  whom 
they  look  up,  expressions,  principles,  and  prudent 
rules  of  life,  which  consciously  or  unconsciously 
exercise  an  influence  on  the  young  life  of  the  child. 
Yet  with  how  little  of  loving  introspection  we  pass 
our  judgments.  MS. 


If  you  want  to  be  at  peace  with  yourself,  do  not 
mind  being  at  war  with  the  world.  MS. 


THE   BEAUTIFUL 

Is  the  Beautiful  without  us,  or  is  it  not  rather 
within  us  ?  What  we  call  sweet  and  bitter  is  our 
own  sweetness,  our  own  bitterness,  for  nothing 
can  be  sweet  or  bitter  without  us.  Is  it  not  the 
same  with  the  Beautiful  ?  The  world  is  like 
a  rich  mine,  full  of  precious  ore,  but  each  man 
has  to  assay  the  ore  for  himself,  before  he  knows 
what  is  gold,  and  what  is  not.  What  then  is  the 
touchstone  by  which  we  assay  the  Beautiful  ? 
We  have  a  touchstone  for  discovering  the  good. 
Whatever  is  unselfish  is  good.  But — though 
nothing  can  be  beautiful,  except  what  is,  in  some 
sense  or  other,  good,  not  everything  that  is  good 
is  also  beautiful.  What,  then,  is  that  something 
which,  added  to  the  good,  makes  it  beautiful  ? 
It  is  a  great  mystery.  It  is  so  to  us  as  it  was  to 
Plato.  We  must  have  gazed  on  the  Beautiful  in 
the  dreams  of  childhood,  or,  it  may  be,  in  a  former 
life,  and  now  we  look  for  it  everywhere,  but  we 
can  never  find  it — never  at  least  in  all  its  bright- 
ness and  fulness  again,  never  as  we  remember  it 
once  as  the  vision  of  a  half- forgotten  dream. 
Nor  do  we  all  remember  the  same  ideal — some 

6 


LIFE  AND   RELIGION  7 

poor  creatures  remember  none  at  all.  .  .  . 
The  ideal,  therefore,  of  what  is  beautiful  is  within 
us,  that  is  all  we  know;  how  it  came  there  we  shall 
never  know.  It  is  certainly  not  of  this  life,  else 
we  could  define  it;  but  it  underlies  this  life,  else 
we  could  not  feel  it.  Sometimes  it  meets  us  like 
a  smile  of  Nature,  sometimes  like  a  glance  of  God; 
and  if  anything  proves  that  there  is  a  great  past, 
and  a  great  future,  a  Beyond,  a  higher  world,  a 
hidden  life,  it  is  our  faith  in  the  Beautiful. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 


THE   BIBLE 

The  fault  is  ours,  not  theirs,  if  we  wilfully 
misinterpret  the  language  of  ancient  prophets,  if 
we  persist  in  understanding  their  words  in  their 
outward  and  material  aspect  only,  and  forget  that 
before  language  had  sanctioned  a  distinction 
between  the  concrete  and  the  abstract,  between 
the  purely  spiritual  as  opposed  to  the  coarsely 
material,  the  intention  of  the  speakers  compre- 
hended both  the  concrete  and  the  abstract,  both 
the  material  and  the  spiritual,  in  a  manner  which 
has  become  quite  strange  to  us,  though  it  lives  on 
in  the  language  of  every  true  poet. 

Science  of  Religion. 

Canonical  books  give  the  reflected  image  only 
of  the  real  doctrines  of  the  founder  of  a  new 
religion;  an  image  always  blurred  and  distorted 
by  the  medium  through  which  it  had  to  pass. 

Ibid. 

The  Old  Testament  stands  on  a  higher  ethical 
stage  than  other  sacred  books — it  certainly  does 
not  lose  by  a  comparison  with  them.     I  always 

8 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  9 

said  so,  but  people  would  not  believe  it.  Still, 
anything  to  show  the  truly  historical  and  human 
character  of  the  Old  Testament  would  be  ex- 
tremely useful  in  any  sense,  and  would  in  no  wise 
injure  the  hidi  character  which  it  possesses. 

Life. 

If  we  have  once  learned  to  be  charitable  and 
reasonable    in    the    interpretation    of   the    sacred 
books  of  other  religions,  we  shall  more  easily  learn 
to  be  charitable  and  reasonable  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  our  own.     We  shall  no  longer  try  to  force 
a    literal    sense    on   words    which,    if   interpreted 
literally,   must  lose  their   true  and  original  pur- 
port; we  shall  no   longer  interpret  the  Law  and 
the  Prophets   as  if  they  had  been  written  in  the 
English  of  our  own  century,  but  read  them  in  a 
truly  historical  spirit,  prepared  for  many  difficulties, 
undiscouraged  by  many  contradictions,  which,  so 
far  from   disproving  the  authenticity,  become  to 
the    historian    of   ancient    language    and    ancient 
thought   the    strongest   confirmatory   evidence   of 
the  age,  the  genuineness,  and  the  real  truth  of 
ancient  sacred  books.     Let  us  but  treat  our  own 
sacred  books  with  neither  more  nor  less  mercy 
than  the  sacred  books  of  any  other  nations,  and 
they  will  soon  regain  that  position  and  influence 
which  they  once  possessed,  but  which  the  artificial 


io  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

and  unhistorical  theories  of  the  last  three  centuries 
have  well-nigh  destroyed.      Science  of  Religion. 


By  the  students  of  the  science  of  religion  the 
Old  Testament  can  only  be  looked  upon  as  a 
strictly  historical  book,  by  the  side  of  other  his- 
torical books.  It  can  claim  no  privilege  before 
the  tribunal  of  history;  nay,  to  claim  such  a  privi- 
lege would  be  to  really  deprive  it  of  the  high 
position  which  it  justly  holds  among  the  most 
valuable  monuments  of  the  distant  past.  But 
the  authorship  of  the  single  books  which  form  the 
Old  Testament,  and  more  particularly  the  dates 
at  which  they  were  reduced  to  writing,  form  the 
subject  of  keen  controversy,  not  among  critics 
hostile  to  religion,  but  among  theologians  who 
treat  these  questions  in  the  most  independent, 
but  at  the  same  time,  the  most  candid  and 
judicial,  spirit.  By  this  treatment  many 
difficulties,  which  in  former  times  disturbed 
the  minds  of  thoughtful  theologians,  have 
been  removed,  and  the  Old  Testament  has 
resumed  its  rightful  place  among  the  most 
valuable  monuments  of  antiquity.  .  .  .  But 
this  was  possible  on  one  condition  only,  namely, 
that  the  Old  Testament  should  be  treated  simply 
as  an  historical  book,  willing  to  submit  to  all  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  u 

tests  of  historical  criticism  to  which  other  historical 
books  have  submitted.         Gifford  Lectures,  II. 


What  the  student  of  the  history  of  the  continuous 
growth  of  religion  looks  for  in  vain  in  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  are  the  successive  stages 
in  the  development  of  religious  concepts.  He 
does  not  know  which  books  he  may  consider  as 
more  ancient  or  more  modern  than  other  books. 
He  asks  in  vain  how  much  of  the  religious  ideas 
reflected  in  certain  of  these  books  may  be  due 
to  ancient  tradition,  how  much  to  the  mind  of  the 
latest  writer.  In  Exodus  iii.,  God  is  revealed  to 
Moses,  not  only  as  the  supreme,  but  as  the  only 
God.  But  we  are  now  told  by  competent  scholars 
that  Exodus  could  not  have  been  written  down  till 
probably  a  thousand  years  after  Moses.  How 
then  can  we  rely  on  it  as  an  accurate  picture  of  the 
thoughts  of  Moses  and  his  contemporaries  ?  It 
has  been  said  with  great  truth  that  "it  is  almost 
impossible  to  believe  that  a  people  who  had 
been  emancipated  from  superstition  at  the  time 
of  the  Exodus,  and  who  had  been  all  along  taught 
to  conceive  God  as  the  one  universal  Spirit, 
existing  only  in  truth  and  righteousness,  should  be 
found  at  the  time  of  Josiah,  nearly  900  years  later, 
steeped  in  every  superstition."     Still  if  the  writings 


12  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

of  the  Old  Testament  *  were  contemporaneous 
with  the  events  they  relate,  this  retrogressive 
movement  would  have  to  be  admitted.  Most  of 
these  difficulties  are  removed,  or  considerably 
lessened,  if  we  accept  the  results  of  modern  Hebrew 
scholarship,  and  remember  that  though  the  Old 
Testament  may  contain  very  ancient  traditions, 
they  probably  were  not  reduced  to  writing  till  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  century  B.  C,  and  may  have 
been  modified  by  and  mixed  up  with  ideas  belong- 
ing to  the  time  of  Ezra.  Ibid. 


May  we,  or  may  we  not,  interpret,  as  students  of 
language,  and  particularly  as  students  of  Oriental 
languages,  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament  as 
a  primitive  and  as  an  Oriental  language  ?  May 
we,  or  may  we  not,  as  true  believers,  see  through 
the  veil  which  human  language  always  throws 
over  the  most  sacred  mysteries  of  the  soul,  and 
instead  of  dragging  the  sublimity  of  Abraham's 
trial  and  Abraham's  faith  down  to  the  level  of  a 
merely   preternatural   event,    recognise    in    it   the 

*The  reader  is  reminded  that  these  lectures  were  published  in  1891,  before 
English  theologians  had  reached  any  generally  received  results  in  the  study  of 
the  dates  of  the  various  parts  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  would  be  more  cor- 
rect now  to  substitute  the  "  Pentateuch  "  for  the  "  Old  Testament."  For  a 
statement  of  the  modern  views  of  the  several  periods  to  which  the  different 
books  may  be  assigned,  see  Canon  Driver's  "  Introduction  to  the  Literature 
of  the  Old  Testament." 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  13 

real  trial  of  a  human  soul,  the  real  faith  of  the 
friend  of  God,  a  faith  without  stormwinds,  without 
earthquakes  and  fires,  a  faith  in  the  still  small 
voice  of  God  ?  MS. 


Is  it  really  necessary  to  say  again  and  again 
what  the  Buddhists  have  said  so  often  and  well, 
that  the  act  of  creation  is  perfectly  inconceivable 
to  any  human  understanding,  and  that,  if  we 
speak  of  it  at  all,  we  can  only  do  so  anthropo- 
morphically,  or  mythologically  ?  MS. 


CHILDREN 

All  seems  to  bright  and  perfect,  and  quite  a 
new  life  seems  to  open  before  me,  in  that  beloved 
little  child.  She  helps  me  to  look  forward  to  such 
a  far  distance  and  opens  quite  a  new  view  of  one's 
own  purpose  and  duties  on  earth.  It  is  something 
new  to  live  for,  to  train  a  human  soul  intrusted 
to  us,  and  to  fit  her  for  her  true  home  beyond  this 
life.  Life. 


I  doubt  whether  it  is  possible  to  take  too  high  a 
view  of  life  where  the  education  of  children  is 
concerned.  It  is  the  one  great  work  intrusted  to 
us,  it  forms  the  true  religion  of  life.  "  Nothing  is 
small  or  unimportant  in  forming  the  next  genera- 
tion, which  is  to  carry  on  the  work  where  we  have 
to  leave  it  unfinished.  No  single  soul  can  be 
spared — every  one  is  important,  every  one  may 
be  the  cause  of  infinite  good,  or  of  infinite  mischief, 
for  ever  hereafter.  MS. 


n 


CHRIST.    THE   LOGOS 

An  explanation  of  Logos  in  Greek  philosophy 
is  much  simpler  than  is  commonly  supposed.  It 
is  only  needful  not  to  forget  that  for  the  Greeks 
thought  and  word  were  inseparable,  and  that  the 
same  term,  namely,  Logos,  expressed  both,  though 
they  distinguished  the  inner  from  the  outer 
Logos.  It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  aber- 
rations of  the  human  mind  to  imagine  that  there 
could  be  a  word  without  thought,  or  a  thought 
without  word.  The  two  are  inseparable;  one  can- 
not exist  or  be  even  conceived  without  the  other. 

Silesian  Horseherd. 

In  nearly  all  religions  God  remains  far  from 
man.  I  say,  in  nearly  all  religions:  for  in  Brah- 
manism  the  unity,  not  the  union,  of  the  human 
soul  with  Brahma  is  recognised  as  the  highest  aim. 
This  unity  with  Deity  together  with  phenomenal 
difference,  Jesus  expressed  in  part  through  the 
Logos,  in  part  through  the  Son.  There  is  nothing 
so  closely  allied  as  thought  and  word,  Father  and 
Son.  They  can  be  distinguished  but  never 
separated,  for  they  exist  only  through  each  other. 

15 


16  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

In  this  manner  the  Greek  philosophers  considered 
all  creation  as  the  thought  or  the  word  of  God, 
and  the  thought  "man"  became  naturally  the 
highest  Logos,  realised  in  millions  of  men,  and 
raised  to  the  highest  perfection  in  Jesus.  As  the 
thought  exists  only  through  the  word,  and  the  word 
only  through  the  thought,  so  also  the  Father 
exists  only  through  the  Son,  and  the  Son  through 
the  Father,  and  in  this  sense  Jesus  feels  and 
declares  Himself  the  Son  of  God,  and  all  men  who 
believe  in  Him  His  brethren.  This  revelation  or 
inspiration  came  to  mankind  through  Jesus.  No 
one  knew  the  Father  except  the  Son,  Who  is  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Father,  and  those  to  whom  the 
Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him.  This  is  the  Christian 
Revelation  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.       Ibid. 


Small  as  may  be  the  emphasis  that  we  now  lay 
on  the  Logos  doctrine,  in  that  period  (i.  e.  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel)  it  was  the  centre,  the  vital  germ, 
of  the  whole  Christian  teaching.  If  we  read  any 
of  the  writings  of  Athanasius,  or  of  any  of  the 
older  Church  Fathers,  we  shall  be  surprised  to 
see  how  all  of  them  begin  with  the  Word  (Logos) 
as  a  fixed  point  of  departure,  and  then  proceed 
to  prove  that  the  Word  is  the  Son  of  God, 
and    finally   that   the    Son   of  God    is    Jesus    of 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  17 

Nazareth.       Religion    and    philosophy    are    here 
closely  related.  Ibid. 


What  is  true  Christianity  if  it  be  not  the  belief 
in  the  true  sonship  of  man,  as  the  Greek  philoso- 
phers had  rightly  surmised,  but  had  never  seen 
realised  on  earth  ?  Here  is  the  point  where  the 
two  great  intellectual  currents  of  the  Aryan 
and  Semitic  worlds  flow  together,  in  that  the  long- 
expected  Messiah  of  the  Jews  was  recognised  as 
the  Logos,  the  true  Son  of  God,  and  that  He 
opened  or  revealed  to  every  man  the  possibility 
to  become  what  he  had  always  been,  but  had 
never  before  apprehended,  the  highest  thought, 
the  Word,  the  Logos,  the  Son  of  God.  Ibid. 


Eternal  life  consists  in  knowing  that  men  have 
their  Father  and  their  true  being  in  the  only 
true  God,  and  that  as  sons  of  this  same  Father, 
they  are  of  like  nature  with  God  and  Christ. 

Ibid. 

Why  should  the  belief  in  the  Son  give  everlasting 
life  ?  Because  Jesus  has  through  His  own  sonship 
in  God  declared  to  us  ours  also.  This  knowledge 
gives  us  eternal  life  through  the  conviction  that 


18  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

we  too  have  something  divine  and  eternal  within 
us,  namely,  the  word  of  God,  the  Son  whom  He 
hath  sent.  Jesus  Himself,  however,  is  the  only 
begotten  Son,  the  light  of  the  world.  He  first 
fulfilled  and  illumined  the  divine  idea  which  lies 
darkly  in  all  men,  and  made  it  possible  for  all  men 
to  become  actually  what  they  have  always  been 
potentially — sons  of  God.  Ibid. 


We  make  the  fullest  allowance  for  those  who, 
from  reverence  for  God  and  for  Christ,  and  from 
the  purest  motives,  protest  against  claiming  for 
man  the  full  brotherhood  of  Christ.  But  when 
they  say  that  the  difference  between  Christ  and 
mankind  is  one  of  kind,  and  not  of  degree,  they 
know  not  what  they  do,  they  nullify  the  whole  of 
Christ's  teaching,  and  they  deny  the  Incarnation 
which  they  pretend  to  teach. 

Gi fjord  Lectures,  IV. 

The  Ammergau  play  must  be  very  powerful. 
And  I  feel  sure  just  now  nothing  is  more  wanted 
than  to  be  powerfully  impressed  with  the  truly 
human  character  of  Christ;  it  has  almost  vanished 
under  the  extravagant  phraseology  of  hymns  and 
creeds,  and  yet  how  much  greater  is  the  simple 
story  of  His  unselfish  life  than  all  the  superlatives 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  19 

of  later  Theology.  If  one  knows  what  it  is  to  lose 
a  human  soul  whom  one  has  loved — how  one 
forgets  all  that  was  human,  and  only  clings  to 
what  was  eternal  in  it,  one  can  understand  the 
feelings  of  Christ's  friends  and  disciples  when 
they  saw  Him  crucified  and  sacrificed,  the  inno- 
cent for  those  whom  He  wished  to  guide  and  save. 

MS. 


Jesus  destroyed  the  barrier  between  man  and 
God,  the  veil  that  hid  the  Holiest  was  withdrawn. 
Man  was  taught  to  see,  what  the  prophets  had 
seen  dimly,  that  he  was  near  to  God,  that  God 
was  near  to  every  one  of  us,  that  the  old  Jewish 
view  of  a  distant  Jehovah  had  arisen  from  an 
excess  of  reverence,  had  filled  the  heart  of  man 
with  fear,  but  not  with  love.  Jesus  did  not  teach 
a  new  doctrine — but  He  removed  an  old  error, 
and  that  error,  that  slavish  fear  of  God  once 
removed,  the  human  heart  would  recover  the  old 
trust  in  God — man  would  return  like  a  lost  son 
to  his  lost  father — he  would  feel  that  if  he  was 
anything,  he  could  only  be  what  his  God  had 
made  him,  and  wished  him  to  be.  And  if  a  name 
was  wanted  for  that  intimate  relation  between 
God  and  man,  what  better  name  was  there  than 
Father  and  Son  ?  MS. 


20  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Those  who  deprived  Jesus  of  His  real  humanity 
in  order  to  exalt  Him  above  all  humanity  were 
really  undoing  His  work.  Christ  came  to  teach 
us,  not  what  He  was,  but  what  we  are.  He 
had  seen  that  man,  unless  he  himself  learned  to  be 
the  child  of  God,  was  lost.  All  his  aspirations 
were  vain  unless  they  all  sprang  from  one  deep 
aspiration,  love  of  God.  And  how  can  we  love 
what  is  totally  different  from  ourselves  ?  If 
there  is  in  us  a  likeness,  however  small,  of  God, 
then  we  can  love  our  God,  feel  ourselves  drawn 
toward  Him,  have  our  true  being  in  Him.  That 
is  the  essence  of  Christianity,  that  is  what  dis- 
tinguishes the  Christian  from  all  other  religions. 
And  yet  that  very  kernel  and  seed  of  Christianity 
is  constantly  disregarded,  is  even  looked  upon 
with  distrust.  Was  not  Christ,  who  died  for  us, 
more  than  we  ourselves  ?  it  is  said.  Or  again,  are 
we  to  make  ourselves  gods  ?  Christ  never  says 
that  He  is  different  from  ourselves;  He  never 
taught  as  a  God  might  teach.  His  constant 
teaching  is,  that  we  are  His  brethren,  and  that 
we  ought  to  follow  His  example,  to  become  like 
Him,  because  we  were  meant  to  be  like  Him.  In 
that  He  has  come  near  to  God,  as  near  as  a  son 
can  be  to  his  father,  He  is  what  He  was  meant  to 
be.  We  are  not,  and  hence  the  deep  difference 
between  Him  and  us.  MS, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  21 

Then  it  is  said,  Is  not  Christ  God  ?  Yes,  He 
is,  but  in  His  own  sense,  not  in  the  Jewish  nor  in 
the  Greek  sense,  nor  in  the  sense  which  so  many 
Christians  attach  to  that  article  of  their  faith. 
Christ's  teaching  is  that  we  are  God,  that  there  is 
in  us  something  divine — that  we  are  nothing  if  we 
are  not  that.  He  also  teaches  that  through  our 
own  fault  we  are  now  widely  separated  from  God, 
as  a  son  may  be  entirely  separated  and  alienated 
from  his  father.  But  God  is  a  perfect  and  loving 
Father.  He  knows  that  we  can  be  weak,  and  yet 
be  good,  and  when  His  lost  sons  return  to  Him 
He  receives  them  and  forgives  them  as  only  a 
father  can  forgive.  Let  us  bestow  all  praise  and 
glory  on  Christ  as  the  best  son  of  God.  Let  us 
feel  how  unworthy  we  are  to  be  called  His  brothers, 
and  the  children  of  God,  but  let  us  not  lose  Christ, 
and  lose  our  Father  whom  He  came  to  show  us, 
by  exalting  Jesus  beyond  the  place  which  He 
claimed  Himself.  Christ  never  calls  Himself  the 
Father,  He  speaks  of  His  Father  with  love,  but 
always  with  humility  and  reverence.  All  attempts 
to  find  in  human  language  a  better  expression  than 
that  of  son  have  failed.  Theologians  and  philoso- 
phers have  tried  in  vain  to  define  more  accurately 
the  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Father,  of  man 
to  God.  They  have  called  Christ  another 
person  of  the   Godhead.      Is    that    better    than 


22  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Christ's  own  simple   human  language,  "I  go  to 
my  Father"?  MS. 


Christ  has  been  made  so  unreal  to  us.  He  has 
been  spoken  of  in  such  unmeasured  terms  that  it 
is  very  difficult  to  gain  Him  back,  such  as  He  was, 
without  a  fear  of  showing  less  reverence  and  love 
of  Him  than  others.  And  yet,  unreal  expressions 
are  always  false  expressions — nothing  is  so  bad 
as  if  we  do  not  fully  mean  what  we  say.  Of 
course  we  know  Christ  through  His  friends  only, 
they  tell  us  what  He  told  them — they  represent 
Him  as  He  appeared  to  them.  What  fallible 
judges  they  often  were  they  do  not  disguise,  and 
that,  no  doubt,  raises  the  value  of  their  testimony, 
but  we  can  only  see  Him  as  they  saw  Him;  the 
fact  remains  we  know  very  little  of  Him.  Still 
enough  remains  to  show  that  Christ  was  full  of 
love,  that  He  loved  not  only  His  friends,  but  His 
enemies.  Christ's  whole  life  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  love,  not  of  coldness.  He  perceived  our 
common  brotherhood,  and  what  it  was  based  on, 
our  common  Father  beyond  this  world,  in  heaven, 
as  He  said.  MS. 


CHRISTIANITY 

Christianity  is  Christianity  by  this  one  funda- 
mental truth,  that  as  God  is  the  father  of  man,  so 
truly,  and  not  poetically,  or  metaphorically  only, 
man  is  the  son  of  God,  participating  in  God's 
very  essence  and  nature,  though  separated  from 
God  by  self  and  sin.  This  oneness  of  nature  be- 
tween the  Divine  and  the  human  does  not  lower 
the  concept  of  God  by  bringing  it  nearer  to  the 
level  of  humanity;  on  the  contrary,  it  raises  the  old 
concept  of  man  and  brings  it  nearer  to  its  true 
ideal.  The  true  relation  between  God  and  man 
had  been  dimly  foreseen  by  many  prophets  and 
poets,  but  Christ  was  the  first  to  proclaim  that 
relation  in  clear  and  simple  language.  He  called 
Himself  the  Son  of  God,  and  He  was  the  firstborn 
son  of  God  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  word.  But 
He  never  made  Himself  equal  with  the  Father  in 
whom  He  lived  and  moved  and  had  His  being. 
He  was  man  in  the  new  and  true  sense  of  the  word 
and  in  the  new  and  true  sense  of  the  word  He  was 
God.  To  my  mind  man  is  nothing  if  He  does  not 
participate  in  the  Divine. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 
23 


24  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

True  Christianity  lives,  not  in  our  belief,  but  in 
our  love,  in  our  love  of  God,  and  in  our  love  of 
man,  founded  on  our  love  of  God.  Ibid. 


True  Christianity,  I  mean  the  religion  of  Christ, 
seems  to  me  to  become  more  and  more  exalted  the 
more  we  know  and  the  more  we  appreciate  the 
treasures  of  truth  hidden  in  the  despised  religions 
of  the  world.  But  no  one  can  honestly  arrive  at 
that  conviction  unless  he  uses  honestly  the  same 
measure  for  all  religions.     Science  of  Religion. 


The  position  which  Christianity  from  the 
very  beginning  took  up  with  regard  to  Judaism 
served  as  the  first  lesson  in  comparative  the- 
ology, and  directed  the  attention  even  of  the 
unlearned  to  a  comparison  of  two  religions, 
differing  .  in  their  conception  of  the  Deity, 
in  their  estimate  of  humanity,  in  their  motives 
of  morality,  and  in  their  hope  of  immortality, 
yet  sharing  so  much  in  common  that  there 
are  but  few  of  the  psalms  and  prayers  in 
the  Old  Testament  in  which  a  Christian 
cannot  heartily  join  even  now,  and  but  few 
rules  of  morality  which  he  ought  not  even 
now  to  obey.  Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  25 

It  was  exactly  because  the  doctrine  of  Christ, 
more  than  that  of  the  founders  of  any  other  religion, 
offered  in  the  beginning  an  expression  of  the  highest 
truths  in  which  Jewish  carpenters,  Roman  pub- 
licans and  Greek  philosophers  could  join  without 
dishonesty,  that  it  has  conquered  the  best  part 
of  the  world.  It  was  because  attempts  were 
made  from  very  early  times  to  narrow  and  stiffen 
the  outward  expression  of  our  faith,  to  put  narrow 
dogma  in  the  place  of  trust  and  love,  that  the 
Christian  Church  often  lost  those  who  might  have 
been  its  best  defenders,  and  that  the  religion  of 
Christ  has  almost  ceased  to  be  what,  before  all 
things,  it  was  meant  to  be,  a  religion  of  world- 
wide love   and  charity.  Hibbert  Lectures. 


The  founder  of  Christianity  insisted  again  and 
again  on  the  fact  that  He  came  to  fulfil,  and  not  to 
destroy;  and  we  know  how  impossible  it  would  be 
to  understand  the  true  position  of  Christianity  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  the  true  purport  of  the 
"fulness  of  time,"  unless  we  always  remember 
that  its  founder  was  born  and  lived  and  died  an 
Israelite.  Many  of  the  parables  and  sayings  of 
the  New  Testament  have  now  been  traced  back, 
not  only  to  the  Old  Testament,  but  to  the  Talmud 
also;  and  we  know  how  difficult  it  was  at  first  for 


26  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

any  but  a  Jew  to  understand  the  true  meaning 
of  the  new  Christian  doctrine. 

Gifford  Lectures,  I. 


There  is  no  religion  in  the  whole  world  which  in 
simplicity,  in  purity  of  purpose,  in  charity,  and 
true  humanity,  comes  near  to  that  religion  which 
Christ  taught  to  His  disciples.  And  yet  that  very 
religion,  we  are  told,  is  being  attacked  on  all 
sides.  The  principal  reason  for  this  omnipresent 
unbelief  is,  I  believe,  the  neglect  of  our  foundations, 
the  disregard  of  our  own  bookless  religion,  the 
almost  disdain  of  Natural  Religion.  Even  Bishops 
will  curl  their  lips  when  you  speak  to  them  of 
that  natural  and  universal  religion  which  existed 
before  the  advent  of  our  historical  religions,  nay, 
without  which  all  historical  religions  would  have 
been  as  impossible  as  poetry  is  without  language* 
Natural  religion  may  exist  and  does  exist  without 
revealed  religion.  Revealed  religion  without  nat- 
ural religion  is  an  utter  impossibility.         Ibid. 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  free  inquiry  has 
swept  away,  and  will  sweep  away,  many  things 
which  have  been  highly  valued,  nay,  which  were 
considered  essential  by  many  honest  and   pious 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  27 

minds.  And  yet  who  will  say  that  true  Christian- 
ity, Christianity  which  is  known  by  its  fruits,  is 
less  vigorous  now  than  it  has  ever  been  before  ? 
There  have  been  discussions  in  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  time  of  the  Apostles  to  our  own 
times.  We  have  passed  through  them  ourselves, 
we  are  passing  through  them  now. 

Gifford  Lectures,  II. 

When  we  think  of  the  exalted  character  of 
Christ's  teaching,  may  we  not  ask  ourselves  once 
more,  What  would  He  have  said  if  He  had  seen 
the  fabulous  stories  of  His  birth  and  childhood, 
or  if  He  had  thought  that  His  Divine  character 
would  ever  be  made  to  depend  on  the  historical 
truth  of  the  Evangelia  Infantiae  ?  Ibid. 


Much  of  the  mere  outworks  of  Christianity 
cannot  hold  the  ground  on  which  they  have 
been  planted,  they  have  to  be  given  up  by 
force  at  last,  when  they  ought  to  have  been 
given  up  long  before;  and  when  given  up 
at  last,  they  often  tear  away  with  them  part 
of  the  strength  of  that  faith  of  which  they 
had  previously  been  not  only  the  buttress  outside, 
but  a  part  of  the  living  framework. 

Gifford  Lectures,  III, 


28  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

What    we    call    Christianity    embraces    several 
fundamental  doctrines,  but  the  most  important  of 
them  all  is  the  recognition  of  the  Divine  in  man, 
or,  as  we  call  it,  the  belief  in  the  Divinity  of  the 
Son.     The  belief  in  God,  let  us  say  in  God  the 
Father,  or  the  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  world, 
had  been  elaborated  by  the  Jews,  and  most  of 
the  civilised  and  uncivilised  nations  of  the  world 
had    arrived    at    it.     But   when   the    Founder   of 
Christianity  called  God  His  Father,  and  not  only 
His  Father,  but  the  Father  of  all  mankind,  He 
did  no  longer  speak  the  language  of  either  Jews 
or  Greeks.     To  the  Jews,  to  claim  Divine  sonship 
for  man,  would  have  been  blasphemy.     To  the 
Greeks,    Divine    sonship    would    have   meant   no 
more  than   a   miraculous,   a   mythological  event. 
Christ  spoke  a  new  language,  a  language  liable, 
no  doubt,  to  be  misunderstood,  as  all  language 
is;    but  a  language  which  to  those  who  under- 
stood it  has  imparted  a  new  glory  to  the  face  of 
the   whole   world.     It    is   well    known    how   this 
event,  the  discovery  of  the  Divine  in  man,  which 
involves  a  complete  change  in  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  mankind,  and  marks  the  great  turning 
point  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has  been  sur- 
rounded by  a  legendary  halo,  has  been  obscured, 
has  been  changed  into  mere  mythology,  so  that 
its  real  meaning  has  often  been  quite  forgotten, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  29 

and  has  to  be  discovered  again  by  honest  and 
fearless  seeking.  Christ  had  to  speak  the  language 
of  His  time,  but  He  gave  a  new  meaning  to  it, 
and  yet  that  language  has  often  retained  its  old 
discarded  meaning  in  the  minds  of  His  earliest, 
nay  sometimes  of  His  latest  disciples  also.  The 
Divine  sonship  of  which  He  speaks  was  not  blas- 
phemy as  the  Jews  thought,  nor  mythology  as  so 
many  of  His  own  followers  imagined,  and  still 
imagine.  Father  and  Son,  divine  and  human, 
were  like  the  old  bottles  that  could  hardly  hold 
the  new  wine;  and  yet  how  often  have  the  old 
broken  bottles  been  preferred  to  the  new  wine 
that  was  to  give  new  life  to  the  world.         Ibid. 


If  we  have  learnt  to  look  upon  Christianity, 
not  as  something  unreal  and  unhistorical,  but 
as  an  integral  part  of  history,  of  the  histor- 
ical growth  of  the  human  race,  we  can  see 
how  all  the  searchings  after  the  Divine  or 
Infinite  in  man,  were  fulfilled  in  the  simple 
utterances  of  Christ.  His  preaching,  we  are 
told,  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
Life,  the  life  of  the  soul,  and  immortality, 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  were  there  and 
had  always  been  there.  But  they  were  brought 
to  light,  man  was  made  fully  conscious  of  them, 


3o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

man  remembered  his  royal  birth,  when  the  word 
had  been  spoken  by  Christ.  Ibid. 


We  must  never  forget  that  it  was  not  the  prin- 
cipal object  of  Christ's  teaching  to  make  others 
believe  that  He  only  was  divine,  immortal,  or  the 
son  of  God.  He  wished  them  to  believe  this  for 
their  own  sake,  for  their  own  regeneration.  "As 
many  as  received  Him  to  them  gave  He  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God.,,  It  might  be  thought, 
at  first,  that  this  recognition  of  a  Divine  element 
in  man  must  necessarily  lower  the  conception  of 
the  Divine.  And  so  it  does  in  one  sense.  It 
brings  God  nearer  to  us,  it  bridges  over  the  abyss 
by  which  the  Divine  and  the  human  were  com- 
pletely separated  in  the  Jewish,  and  likewise  in 
many  of  the  pagan  religions.  It  rends  the  veil 
of  the  temple.  This  lowering,  therefore,  is 
no  real  lowering  of  the  Divine.  It  is  an 
expanding  of  the  concept  of  the  Divine, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  raising  of  the 
concept  of  humanity,  or,  rather,  a  restoration 
of  what  is  called  human  to  its  true  character, 
a  regeneration,  or  a  second  birth,  as  it  is 
called  by  Christ  Himself:  "Except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  31 

There  is  a  constant  action  and  reaction  in  the 
growth  of  religious  ideas,  and  the  first  action  by 
which  the  Divine  was  separated  from  and  placed 
almost  beyond  the  reach  of  the  human  mind  was 
followed  by  a  reaction  which  tried  to  reunite  the 
two.  This  process,  though  visible  in  many 
religions,  was  most  pronounced  in  Judaism  in  its 
transition  to  Christianity.  Nowhere  had  the 
invisible  God  been  further  removed  from  the  vis- 
ible world  than  in  the  ancient  Jewish  religion, 
and  nowhere  have  the  two  been  so  closely  drawn 
together  again  and  made  one  as  by  that  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  Christianity,  the  Divine  son- 
ship  of  man.  Gi fjord  Lectures,  IV. 


Christ  spoke  to  men,  women  and  children,  not 
to  theologians,  and  the  classification  of  His  say- 
ings should  be  made,  not  according  to  theological 
technicalities,  but  according  to  what  makes  our 
own  heart  beat.  Life. 


The  yearning  for  union  or  unity  with  God, 
which  we  see  as  the  highest  goal  in  other  religions, 
finds  its  fullest  recognition  in  Christianity,  if  but 
properly  understood,  that  is,  if  but  treated  histor- 
ically,  and   it   is   inseparable   from   our   belief  in 


32  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

man's  full  brotherhood  with  Christ.  However 
imperfect  the  forms  may  be  in  which  that 
human  yearning  for  God  has  found  expression 
in  different  religions,  it  has  always  been  the 
deepest  spring  of  all  religions,  and  the  highest 
summit  reached  by  Natural  Religion.  The 
different  bridges  that  have  been  thrown  across 
the  gulf  that  seems  to  separate  earth  from 
heaven  and  man  from  God  may  be  more  or 
less  crude  and  faulty,  yet  we  may  trust  that 
many  a  faithful  soul  has  been  carried  across 
by  them  to  a  better  home.  It  is  quite  true 
that  to  speak  of  a  bridge  between  man  and  God, 
even  if  that  bridge  is  called  the  Self,  is  but  a  met- 
aphor. But  how  can  we  speak  of  these  things 
except  in  metaphors  ?  To  return  to  God  is  a 
metaphor,  to  stand  before  the  throne  of  God  is 
a  metaphor,  to  be  in  Paradise  with  Christ  is  a 
metaphor.  Gifford  Lectures,  IV. 


The  Christian  religion  should  challenge  rather 
than  deprecate  comparison.  If  we  find  certain 
doctrines  which  we  thought  the  exclusive  prop- 
erty of  Christianity  in  other  religions  also,  does 
Christianity  lose  thereby,  or  is  the  truth  of  these 
doctrines  impaired  by  being  recognised  by  other 
teachers  also  ?  Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  33 

Love — superseding  faith — seems  to  be  the  key- 
note of  all  Christianity.  But  the  world  is  still  far 
from  true  Christianity,  and  whoever  is  honest 
toward  himself  knows  how  far  away  he  himself 
is  from  the  ideal  he  wishes  to  reach.  One  can 
hardly  imagine  what  this  world  would  be  if  we 
were  really  what  we  profess  to  be,  followers  of 
Christ.  The  first  thing  we  have  to  learn  is  that 
we  are  not  what  we  profess  to  be.  When  we  have 
learnt  that,  we  shall  at  all  events  be  more  for- 
bearing, forgiving,  and  loving  toward  others.  We 
shall  believe  in  them,  give  them  credit  for  good 
intentions,  with  which,  I  hope,  not  hell,  but 
heaven,  is  paved.  Life. 


Our  religion  is  certainly  better  and  purer  than 
others,  but  in  the  essential  points  all  religions 
have  something  in  common.  They  all  start  with 
the  belief  that  there  is  something  beyond,  and 
they  are  all  attempts  to  reach  out  to  it.         Ibid. 


How  little  was  taught  by  Christ,  and  yet  that 
is  enough,  and  every  addition  is  of  evil.  Love 
God,  love  men — that  is  the  whole  law  and  the 
prophets — not  the  Creeds  and  the  Catechism  and 
the  Articles  and  the  endless  theological  discussions. 


34 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


We  want  no  more,  and  those  who  try  to  fulfil  that 
simple  law  know  best  how  difficult  it  is,  and  how 
our  whole  life  and  our  whole  power  are  hardly 
sufficient  to  fulfil  that  short  law.  MS, 


Christ's  teaching  is  plainly  that  as  He  is  the 
Son  of  God  so  we  are  His  brothers.  His  concep- 
tion of  man  is  a  new  one,  and  as  that  is  new,  so 
must  His  conception  of  God  be  new.  He  lifts 
up  humanity,  and  brings  deity  near  to  humanity, 
and  He  expresses  their  inseparable  nature  and 
their  separate  existences  by  the  best  simile  which 
the  world  supplies,  that  of  Father  and  Son.  He 
claims  no  more  for  Himself  than  He  claims  for 
us.  His  only  excellence  is  that  which  is  due  to 
Himself — His  having  been  the  first  to  find  the 
Father,  and  become  again  His  Son,  and  His  hav- 
ing remained  in  life  and  death  more  one  with  the 
Father  than  any  one  of  those  who  professed  to 
believe  in  Him,  and  to  follow  His  example. 

MS. 

If  Jesus  was  not  God,  was  He,  they  ask,  a  mere 
man  ?  A  mere  man  ?  Is  there  anything  among 
the  works  of  God,  anything  next  to  God,  more 
wonderful,  more  awful,  more  holy  than  man  ? 
Much  rather  should  we  ask,  Was  then  Jesus  a 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  35 

mere  God  ?  Look  at  the  miserable  conceptions 
which  man  made  to  himself  as  long  as  he  spoke 
of  gods  beside  God  ?  It  could  not  be  otherwise. 
God  is  one,  and  he  who  admits  other  gods  beside 
or  without  Him  degrades,  nay,  denies  and  destroys 
the  One  God.  A  God  is  less  than  man.  True 
Christianity  does  not  degrade  the  Godhead,  it 
exalts  manhood,  by  bringing  it  back  near  to  God, 
as  near  as  it  is  possible  for  human  thought  to 
approach  the  ineffable  and  inconceivable  Majesty 
of  the  true  God.  MS. 


If  I  ventured  to  speak  of  God's  purpose  at  all, 
I  should  say  that  it  is  not  God's  purpose  to  win 
only  the  spiritually  gifted,  the  humble,  the  tender 
hearted,  the  souls  that  are  discontented  with 
their  own  shortcomings,  the  souls  that  find  happi- 
ness in  self-sacrifice — those  are  His  already — but 
to  win  the  intellectually  gifted,  the  wise,  the  culti- 
vated, the  clever,  or  better  still,  to  win  them  both. 
It  would  be  an  evil  day  for  Christianity  if  it  could 
no  longer  win  the  intellectually  gifted,  the  wise? 
the  cultivated,  the  clever,  and  it  seems  to  me  the 
duty  of  all  who  really  believe  in  Christ  to  show 
that  Christianity,  if  truly  understood,  can  win  the 
highest  as  well  as  the  humblest  intellects. 

Gifford  Lectures,  III. 


DEATH 

Trust  in  God!  What  He  does  is  well  done. 
What  we  are,  we  are  through  Him;  what  we 
suffer,  we  suffer  through  His  will.  We  cannot 
conceive  His  wisdom,  we  cannot  fathom  His 
Love,  but  we  can  trust  with  a  trust  stronger  than 
all  other  trusts  that  He  will  not  forsake  us,  when 
we  cling  to  Him,  and  call  on  Him,  as  His  Son, 
Jesus  Christ,  has  taught  us  to  call  on  Him,  "Our 
Father."  Though  this  earthly  form  of  ours  must 
perish,  all  that  was  good,  and  pure,  and  unselfish 
in  us  will  live.  Death  has  no  power  over  what 
is  of  God  within  us.  Death  changes  and  purifies 
and  perfects  us;  Death  brings  us  nearer  to  God, 
where  we  shall  meet  again  those  that  are  God's, 
and  love  them  with  that  godly  love  which  can 
never  perish.  Life. 


Would  that  loving  Father  begin  such  a  work 
in  us,  as  is  now  going  on,  and  then  destroy  it, 
leave  it  unfinished  ?  No,  what  is  will  be;  what 
really  is  in  us  will  always  be;  we  shall  be  because 
we  are.     Many  things  which  are  now  will  change, 

36 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  37 

but  what  we  really  are  we  shall  always  be;  and 
if  love  forms  really  part  of  our  very  life,  that 
love,  changed  it  may  be,  purified,  sanctified,  will 
be  with  us,  and  remain  with  us  through  that 
greatest  change  which  we  call  death.  The  pangs 
of  death  will  be  the  same  for  all  that,  just  as  the 
pangs  of  childbirth  seem  ordained  by  God  in 
order  to  moderate  the  exceeding  joy  that  a  child 
is  born  into  the  world.  And  as  the  pain  is  for- 
gotten when  the  child  is  born,  so  it  will  be  after 
death — the  joy  will  be  commensurate  to  the  sor- 
row. The  sorrow  is  but  the  effort  necessary  to 
raise  ourselves  to  that  new  and  higher  state  of 
being,  and  without  that  supreme  effort  or  agony, 
the  new  life  that  waits  for  us  is  beyond  our  hori- 
zon, beyond  our  conception.  It  is  childish  to 
try  to  anticipate,  we  cannot  know  anything  about 
it;  we  are  meant  to  be  ignorant;  even  the  "Divina 
Commedia"  of  a  great  poet  and  thinker  is  but 
child's  play,  and  nothing  else.  .  .  .  No  illu- 
sions, no  anticipations,  only  that  certainty,  that 
quiet  rest  in  God,  that  submissive  expectation  of 
the  soul,  which  knows  that  all  is  good,  all  comes 
from  God,  all  tends  to  God.  MS. 


As  one  gets  older,  death  seems  hardly  to  make 
so  wide  a  gap — a  few  years  more  or  les's,  that  is 


38  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

all — meantime  we  know  in  whose  hands  we  all 
are,  that  life  is  very  beautiful,  but  death  has  its 
beauty  too.  Life. 


We  accustom  ourselves  so  easily  to  life  as  a 
second  nature,  and  in  spite  of  the  graves  around 
us,  death  remains  something  unnatural,  hard  and 
terrifying.  That  should  not  be.  An  early  death 
is  terrifying,  but  as  we  grow  older  our  thoughts 
should  accustom  themselves  to  passing  away  at 
the  end  of  a  long  life's  journey.  All  is  so  beauti- 
ful, so  good,  so  wisely  ordered,  that  even  death 
can  be  nothing  hard,  nothing  disturbing;  it  all 
belongs  to  a  great  plan,  which  we  do  not  under- 
stand, but  of  which  we  know  that  it  is  wiser  than 
all  wisdom,  better  than  all  good,  that  it  cannot 
be  otherwise,  cannot  be  better.  In  faith  we  can 
live  and  we  can  die — can  even  see  those  go  before 
us  who  came  before  us,  and  whom  we  must  fol- 
low. All  is  not  according  to  our  will,  to  our  wisdom, 
but  according  to  a  heavenly  Will,  and  those  who 
have  once  found  each  other  through  God's  hand 
will,  clinging  to  His  hand,  find  each  other  again. 

Ibid. 

If  we  are  called  away  sooner  or  later  we  ought  to 
part  cheerfully,  knowing  that  this  earth  could  give 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  39 

no  more  than  has  been  ours,  and  looking  forward 
to  our  new  home,  as  to  a  more  perfect  state  where 
all  that  was  good  and  true  and  unselfish  in  us 
will  live  and  expand,  and  all  that  was  bad  and 
mean  will  be  purified  and  cast  off.  So  let  us  work 
here  as  long  as  it  is  day,  but  without  fearing  the 
night  that  will  lead  us  to  a  new  and  brighter  dawn 
of  life.  MS. 


Annihilation  ...  is  a  word  without  any 
conceivable  meaning.  We  are — that  is  enough. 
What  we  are  does  not  depend  on  us;  what  we  shall 
be  neither.  We  may  conceive  the  idea  of  change 
in  form,  but  not  of  cessation  or  destruction  of 
substance.  People  mean  frequently  by  annihila- 
tion the  loss  of  conscious  personality,  as  distinct 
from  material  annihilation.  What  I  feel  about 
it  is  shortly  this.  If  there  is  anything  real  and 
substantial  in  our  conscious  personality,  then 
whatever  there  is  real  and  substantial  in  it  cannot 
cease  to  exist.  If  on  the  contrary  we  mean  by 
conscious  personality  something  that  is  the  result 
of  accidental  circumstances,  then,  no  doubt,  we 
must  face  the  idea  of  such  a  personality  ceasing 
to  be  what  it  now  is.  I  believe,  however,  that  the 
true  source  and  essence  of  our  personality  lies  in 
what  is  the  most  real  of  all  real  things,  and  in  so 


4o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

far  as  it  is  true,  it  cannot  be  destroyed.  There  is 
a  distinction  between  conscious  personality  and 
personal  consciousness.  A  child  has  personal 
consciousness,  a  man  who  is  this  or  that,  a  Napo- 
leon, a  Talleyrand,  has  conscious  personality. 
Much  of  that  conscious  personality  is  merely 
temporary,  and  passes  away;  but  the  personal 
consciousness  remains.  Life. 


One  look  up  to  heaven,  and  all  this  dust  of  the 
high  road  of  life  vanishes.  Yes!  one  look  up  to 
heaven  and  that  dark  shadow  of  death  vanishes. 
We  have  made  the  darkness  of  that  shadow  our- 
selves, and  our  thoughts  about  death  are  very 
ungodly.  God  has  willed  it  so;  there  is  to  be  a 
change,  and  a  change  of  such  magnitude  that  even 
if  angels  were  to  come  down  and  tell  us  all  about  it, 
we  could  not  understand  it,  as  little  as  the  new- 
born child  would  understand  what  human  language 
could  tell  about  the  present  life.  Think  what  the 
birth  of  a  child,  of  a  human  soul,  is;  and  when  you 
have  felt  the  utter  impossibility  of  fathoming  that 
mystery,  then  turn  your  thoughts  upon  death,  and 
see  in  it  a  new  birth  equally  unfathomable,  but 
only  the  continuation  of  that  joyful  mystery 
which  we  call  a  birth.  It  is  all  God's  work,  and 
where  is  there  a  flaw  in  that  wonder  of  all  wonders, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  41 

God's  ever-working  work  ?     If  people  talk  of  the 
niseries  of  life  are  they  not  ail  man's  work  ? 

Ibid. 

Great  happiness  makes  one  feel  so  often  that  it 
cannot  last,  and  that  we  will  have  some  day  to 
give  up  all  to  which  one's  heart  clings  so.  A  few 
years  sooner  or  later,  but  the  time  will  come,  and 
come  quicker  than  one  expects.  Therefore  I 
believe  it  is  right  to  accustom  oneself  to  the 
thought  that  we  can  none  of  us  escape  death,  and 
that  all  our  happiness  here  is  only  lent  us.  But 
at  the  same  time  we  can  thankfully  enjoy  all  that 
God  gives  us     .  and  there  is  still  so  much 

left  us,  so  much  to  be  happy  and  thankful  for,  and 
yet  here  too  the  thought  always  rushes  across  one's 
brightest  hours:  it  cannot  last,  it  is  only  for  a  few 
years  and  then  it  must  be  given  up.  Let  us  work 
as  long  as  it  is  day,  let  us  try  to  do  our  duty,  and 
be  very  thankful  for  God's  blessings  which  have 
been  showered  upon  us  so  richly — but  let  us  learn 
also  always  to  look  beyond,  and  learn  to  be  ready 
to  give  up  everything — and  yet  say,  Thy  Will  be 
done.  MS. 


It  is  the   most  painful  work   I   know  looking 
through  the  papers  and  other  things  belonging  to 


42  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

one  who  is  no  more  with  us.  How  different  every- 
thing looks  to  what  it  did  before.  There  is  one 
beautiful  feature  about  death,  it  carries  off  all  the 
small  faults  of  the  soul  we  loved,  it  makes  us  see 
the  true  littleness  of  little  things,  it  takes  away  all 
the  shadows,  and  only  leaves  the  light.  That  is 
how  it  ought  to  be,  and  if  in  judging  of  a  person 
we  could  only  bring  ourselves  to  think  how  we 
should  judge  of  them  if  we  saw  them  on  the  bed 
of  death,  how  different  life  would  be !  We  always 
judge  in  self-defence,  and  that  makes  our  judg- 
ments so  harsh.  When  they  are  gone  how  readily 
we  forget  and  forgive  everything,  how  truly  we 
love  all  that  was  loveable  in  them,  how  we  blame 
ourselves  for  our  own  littleness  in  minding  this 
and  that,  and  not  simply  and  truly  loving  all 
that  was  good  and  bright  and  noble.  How  differ- 
ent life  might  be  if  we  could  all  bring  ourselves  to 
be  what  we  really  are,  good  and  loving,  and  could 
blow  away  the  dust  that  somehow  or  other  will 
fall  on  all  of  us.  It  is  never  too  late  to  begin 
again.  Life. 


The  death  of  those  we  love  is  the  last  lesson  we 
receive  in  life — the  rest  we  must  learn  for  ourselves. 
To  me,  the  older  I  grow,  and  the  nearer  I  feel  that 
to  me  the  end   must  be?  the  more  perfect  and 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  43 

beautiful  all  seems  to  be;  one  feels  surrounded  and 
supported  everywhere  by  power,  wisdom,  and 
love,  content  to  trust  and  wait,  incapable  of  mur- 
muring, very  helpless,  very  weak,  yet  strong  in 
that  very  helplessness,  because  it  teaches  us  to 
trust  in  something  not  ourselves.  Yet  parting 
with  those  we  love  is  hard — only  I  fear  there  is 
nothing  else  that  would  have  kept  our  eyes  open 
to  what  is  beyond  this  life.  MS. 


It  is  strange  how  little  we  all  think  of  death  as 
the  condition  of  all  the  happiness  we  enjoy  now. 
If  we  could  but  learn  to  value  each  hour  of  life, 
to  enjoy  it  fully,  to  use  it  fully,  never  to  spoil  a 
minute  by  selfishness,  then  death  would  never 
come  too  soon;  it  is  the  wasted  hours  which  are 
like  death  in  life,  and  which  make  life  really  so 
short.  It  is  not  too  late  to  learn  to  try  to  be  more 
humble,  more  forbearing,  more  courteous,  or, 
what  is  at  the  root  of  all,  more  loving.        Life. 


The  great  world  for  which  we  live  seems  to  me 
as  good  as  the  little  world  in  which  we  live,  and  I 
have  never  known  why  faith  should  fail,  when 
everything,  even  pain  and  sorrow,  is  so  wonder- 
fully good  and  beautiful.     All  that  we  say  to  con- 


44  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

sole  ourselves  on  the  death  of  those  we  loved,  and 
who  loved  us,  is  hollow  and  false;  the  only  true 
thing  is  rest  and  silence.  We  cannot  understand, 
and  therefore  we  must  and  can  trust.  There  can 
be  no  mistake,  no  gap,  in  the  world  poem  to 
which  we  belong;  and  I  believe  that  those  stars 
which  without  their  own  contrivance  have  met 
will  meet  again.  How,  where,  when  ?  God 
knows  this,  and  that  is  enough.  MS. 


God  has  taught  us  that  death  is  not  so 
terrible  as  it  appears  to  most  men — it  is  but 
a  separation  for  a  few  short  days,  and  then, 
too,  eternity  awaits  us.  Life. 


We  live  here  in  a  narrow  dwelling  house,  which 
presses  us  in  on  all  sides,  and  yet  we  fancy  it  is  the 
whole  universe.  But  when  the  door  opens  and  a 
loved  one  passes  out,  never  to  return,  we  too  step 
to  the  door  and  look  out  into  the  distance,  and 
realise  then  how  small  and  empty  the  dwelling  is, 
and  how  a  larger,  more  beautiful  world  waits  for 
us  without.  How  it  is  in  that  larger  world,  who 
can  say  ?  But  if  we  were  so  happy  in  the  narrow 
dwelling,  how  far  more  happy  shall  we  be  out  there! 
Be  not  afraid.     See  how  beautifully  all  is  ordered, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  45 

look  up  to  the  widespread  firmament,  and  think 
how  small  it  is  in  comparison  with  God's  almighty 
power.  He  who  regulates  the  courses  of  the 
stars  will  regulate  the  fate  of  the  souls  of  men,  and 
those  souls  who  have  once  met,  shall  they  not 
meet  again  like  the  stars  ?  MS. 


Those  who  are  absent  are  often  nearer  to  us 
than  those  who  are  present.  MS. 


We  reckon  too  little  with  death,  and  then  when 
it  comes  it  overwhelms  us.  We  know  all  the  time 
that  our  friends  must  go,  and  that  we  must  go, 
but  we  shut  our  eyes,  and  enjoy  their  love  and 
friendship  as  if  life  could  never  end.  We  should 
say  good-bye  to  each  other  every  evening — perhaps 
the  last  good-bye  would  find  us  then  less  unpre- 
pared. MS. 


There  is  something  so  natural  in   death.     We 
come  and  we  go,  there  is  no  break.  Life. 


What    is    more    natural    in    life    than    death  ? 
and     having     lived     this     long    life,    so    full    of 


46  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

light,  having  been  led  so  kindly  by  a  Fatherly 
hand  through  all  storms  and  struggles,  why 
should  I  be  afraid  when  I  have  to  make  the  last 
step  ?  lhiL 


THE   DEITY 

We  clearly  see  that  the  possibility  of  intercourse 
between  man  and  God,  and  a  revelation  of  God 
to  man,  depends  chiefly  or  exclusively  on  the 
conception  which  man  has  previously  formed  of 
God  and  man.  In  all  theological  researches  we 
must  carefully  bear  in  mind  that  the  idea  of  God 
is  our  idea,  which  we  have  formed  in  part  through 
tradition,  and  in  part  by  our  own  thinking.  God 
is  and  remains  our  God.  We  can  have  a  knowl- 
edge of  Him  only  through  our  inner  consciousness, 
not  through  our  senses.  Silesian  Horseherd. 


Our  duties  toward  God  and  man,  our  love  for 
God  and  for  man,  are  as  nothing  without  the  firm 
foundation  which  is  formed  only  by  our  faith  in 
God,  as  the  Thinker  and  Ruler  of  the  world,  the 
Father  of  the  Son,  who  was  revealed  through  Him 
as  the  Father  of  all  sons,  of  all  men.  Ibid, 

Though  Christianity  has  given  us  a  purer  and 
truer  idea  of  the  Godhead,  of  the  majesty  of  His 

47 


48  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

power,  and  the  holiness  of  His  will,  there  remains 
with  many  of  us  the  conception  of  a  merely  ob- 
jective Deity.  God  is  still  with  many  of  us  in  the 
clouds,  so  far  removed  from  the  earth  and  so  high 
above  anything  human,  that  in  trying  to  realise 
fully  the  meaning  of  Christ's  teaching  we  often 
shrink  from  approaching  too  near  to  the  blinding 
effulgence  of  Jehovah.  The  idea  that  we  should 
stand  to  Him  in  the  relation  of  children  to  their 
father  seems  to  some  people  almost  irreverent,  and 
the  thought  that  God  is  near  us  everywhere,  the 
belief  that  we  are  also  His  offspring,  nay,  that  there 
has  never  been  an  absolute  barrier  between 
divinity  and  humanity,  has  often  been  branded  as 
Pantheism.  Yet  Christianity  would  not  be  Chris- 
tianity without  this  so-called  Pantheism,  and  it  is 
only  some  lingering  belief  in  something  like  a  Jove- 
like Deus  Optimus  Maximus  that  keeps  the  eyes 
of  our  mind  fixed  with  awe  on  the  God  of  Nature 
without,  rather  than  on  the  much  more  awful 
God  of  the  soul  within. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 

The  idea  of  God  is  the  result  of  an  unbroken 
historical  evolution,  call  it  a  development,  an 
unveiling,  or  a  purification,  but  not  of  a  sudden 
revelation.  .  .  .  What  right  have  we  to  find 
fault  with  the  manner  in  which  the  Divine  revealed 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  49 

itself,  first  to  the  eyes,  and  then  to  the  mind,  of 
man  ?  Is  the  revelation  in  nature  really  so 
contemptible  a  thing  that  we  can  afford  to  despise 
it,  or  at  the  utmost  treat  it  as  good  enough  for  the 
heathen  world  ?  Our  eyes  must  have  grown  very 
dim,  our  mind  very  dull,  if  we  can  no  longer  per- 
ceive how  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God. 

Gifjord  Lectures,  II. 

A  belief  in  one  Supreme  God,  even  if  at  first  it 
was  only  a  henotheistic,  and  not  yet  a  monotheistic 
belief,  took  possession  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the 
Jewish  race  at  a  very  early  time.  All  tradition 
assigns  that  belief  in  One  God,  the  Most  High,  to 
Abraham.  Abraham,  though  he  did  not  deny  the 
existence  of  the  gods  worshipped  by  the  neigh- 
bouring tribes,  yet  looked  upon  them  as  different 
from,  and  as  decidedly  inferior  to,  his  own  God. 
His  monotheism  was,  no  doubt,  narrow.  His 
God  was  the  friend  of  Abraham,  as  Abraham  was 
the  friend  of  God.  Yet  the  concept  of  God 
formed  by  Abraham  was  a  concept  that  could  and 
did  grow.  Neither  Moses,  nor  the  Prophets,  nor 
Christ  Himself,  nor  even  Mohammed,  had  to 
introduce  a  new  God.  Their  God  was  always 
called  the  God  of  Abraham,  even  when  freed 
from  all  that  was  local  and  narrow  in  the  faith  of 
that  patriarch.  Ibid. 


5o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

To  some  any  attempt  to  trace  back  the  name 
and  concept  of  Jehovah  to  the  same  hidden  sources 
from  which  other  nations  derived  their  first  intima- 
tion of  deity,  may  seem  almost  sacrilegious. 
They  forget  the  difference  between  the  human 
concept  of  the  Deity  and  the  Deity  itself,  which 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  all  human  concepts.  But 
the  historian  reads  deeper  lessons  in  the  growth  of 
these  human  concepts,  as  they  spring  up  every- 
where in  the  minds  of  men  who  have  been  seekers 
after  truth — seeking  the  Lord  if  haply  they  might 
feel  after  Him  and  find  Him;  and  when  he  can 
show  the  slow  but  healthy  growth  of  the  noblest 
and  sublimest  thoughts  out  of  small  and  apparently 
insignificant  beginnings,  he  rejoices  as  the  labourer 
rejoices  over  his  golden  harvest;  nay,  he  often 
wonders  what  is  more  truly  wonderful,  the  butter- 
fly that  soars  up  to  heaven  on  its  silvery  wings,  or 
the  grub  that  hides  within  its  mean  chrysalis  such 
marvellous   possibilities.  Ibid. 


The  concept  of  God  arises  by  necessity  in  the 
human  mind,  and  is  not,  as  so  many  theologians 
Will  have  it,  the  result  of  one  special  disclosure, 
granted  to  Jews  and  Christians  only.  It  seems  to 
me  impossible  to  resist  this  conviction,  where  a 
comparative   study  of  the   great   religions  of  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  51 

world  shows  us  that  the  highest  attributes  which 
we  claim  for  the  Deity  are  likewise  ascribed  to  it 
by  the  Sacred  Books  of  other  religions.         Ibid. 


We  can  now  repeat  the  words  which  have  been 
settled  for  us  centuries  ago,  and  which  we  have 
learnt  by  heart  in  our  childhood — I  believe  in  God 
the  Father,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth — with  the 
conviction  that  they  express,  not  only  the  faith  of 
the  apostles,  or  of  oecumenical  councils,  but  that 
they  contain  the  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  whole 
world,  expressed  in  different  ways,  conveyed  in 
thousands  of  languages,  but  always  embodying 
the  same  fundamental  truth.  I  call  it  funda- 
mental, because  it  is  founded  in  the  very  nature 
of  our  mind,  our  reason  and  our  language,  on  a 
simple  and  ineradicable  conviction  that  where 
there  are  acts  there  must  be  agents,  and  in  the  end, 
one  Prime  Agent,  whom  man  may  know,  not  indeed 
in  His  own  inscrutable  essence,  yet  in  His  acts,  as 
revealed  in  Nature.  Ibid. 


The  historical  proof  of  the  existence  of  God, 
which  is  supplied  to  us  by  the  history  of  the 
religions  of  the  world,  has  never  been  refuted, 
and  cannot  be  refuted.     It  forms  the  foundation 


52  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

of  all  the  other  proofs,  call  them  cosmological, 
ontological,  or  teleological,  or  rather  it  absorbs 
them  all,  and  makes  them  superfluous.  There 
are  those  who  declare  that  they  require  no  proof 
at  all  for  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being,  or 
if  they  did,  they  would  find  it  in  revelation,  and 
nowhere  else.  Suppose  they  wanted  no  proof 
themselves,  would  they  really  not  care  at  all  to 
know  how  the  human  race,  and  how  they  them- 
selves, came  in  possession  of  what,  I  suppose, 
they  value  as  their  most  precious  inheritance  ? 
An  appeal  to  revelation  is  of  no  avail  in  deciding 
questions  of  this  kind,  unless  it  is  first  explained 
what  is  really  meant  by  revelation.  The  history 
of  religions  teaches  us  that  the  same  appeal  to  a 
special  revelation  is  made,  not  only  by  Christian- 
ity, but  by  the  defenders  of  Brahmanism,  Zoroas- 
trianism  and  Mohammedanism,  and  where  is  the 
tribunal  to  adjudicate  on  the  conflicting  appeals 
of  these  and  other  claimants  ?  The  followers  of 
every  one  of  these  religions  declare  their  belief  in 
the  revealed  character  of  their  own  religion, 
never  in  that  of  any  other  religion.  There  is, 
no  doubt,  a  revelation  to  which  we  may  appeal 
in  the  court  of  our  own  conscience,  but  before 
the  court  of  universal  appeal  we  require  differ- 
ent proofs  for  the  faith  that  is  in   us. 

Gifjord  Lectures,  III. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  53 

Given  man,  such  as  he  is,  and  given  the  world, 
such  as  it  is,  a  belief  in  divine  beings,  and,  at  last, 
in  one  Divine  Being,  is  not  only  a  universal,  but 
an  inevitable  fact.  ...  If  from  the  stand- 
point of  human  reason,  no  flaw  can  be  pointed 
out  in  the  intellectual  process  which  led  to  the 
admission  of  something  within,  behind,  or  beyond 
nature,  call  it  the  Infinite  or  any  other  name  you 
like,  it  follows  that  the  history  of  that  process  is 
really,  at  the  same  time,  the  best  proof  of  the 
legitimacy  and  truth  of  the  conclusions  to  which 
it  has  led.  Ibid. 


There  is  no  predicate  in  human  language 
worthy  of  God,  all  we  can  say  of  Him  is  what  the 
Upanishads  said  of  Him,  No,  No!  What  does 
that  mean  ?  It  meant  that  if  God  is  called  all- 
powerful,  we  have  to  say  No,  because  whatever 
we  comprehend  by  powerful  is  nothing  compared 
with  the  power  of  God.  If  God  is  called  all- 
wise,  we  have  again  to  say  No,  because  what  we 
call  wisdom  cannot  approach  the  wisdom  of  God. 
If  God  is  called  holy,  again  we  have  to  say  No, 
for  what  can  our  conception  of  holiness  be,  com- 
pared with  the  holiness  of  God  ?  This  is  what 
the  thinkers  of  the  Upanishads  meant  when  they 
said  that  all  we  can  say  of  God  is  No,  No.      Ibid. 


54  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

If  people  would  only  define  what  they  mean 
by  knowing,  they  would  shrink  from  the  very 
idea  that  God  can  ever  be  known  by  us  in  the 
same  sense  in  which  everything  else  is  known,  or 
that  with  regard  to  Him  we  could  ever  be  any- 
thing but  Agnostics.  All  human  knowledge  begins 
with  the  senses,  and  goes  on  from  sensations  to 
percepts,  from  percepts  to  concepts  and  names. 
And  yet  the  same  people  who  insist  that  they 
know  God,  will  declare  in  the  same  breath  that 
no  one  can  see  God  and  live.  Let  us  only  define 
the  meaning  of  knowing,  and  keep  the  different 
senses  in  which  this  wTord  has  been  used  care- 
fully apart,  and  I  doubt  whether  anyone  would 
venture  to  say  that,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word, 
he  is  not  an  Agnostic  as  regards  the  true  nature 
of  God.  This  silence  before  a  nameless  Being 
does  not  exclude  a  true  belief  in  God,  nor  devo- 
tion, nor  love  of  a  Being  beyond  our  senses,  beyond 
our  understanding,  beyond  our  reason,  and  there- 
fore beyond  all  names.  Ibid. 


Every  one  of  the  names  given  to  this  infinite 
Being  by  finite  beings  marks  a  stage  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  religious  truth.  If  once  we  try  to  under- 
stand these  names,  we  shall  find  that  they  were 
all  well  meant,  that,  for  the  time  being,  they  were 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  55 

probably  the  only  possible  names.  The  Histor- 
ical School  does  not  look  upon  all  the  names  given 
to  divine  powers  as  simply  true,  or  simply  false. 
We  look  upon  all  of  them  as  well  meant  and  true 
for  the  time  being,  as  steps  on  the  ladder  on  which 
the  angels  of  God  ascend  and  descend.  There 
was  no  harm  in  the  ancient  people,  when  they 
were  thirsting  for  rain,  invoking  the  sky,  and  say- 
ing, "O  dear  sky,  send  us  rain!"  And  when 
after  a  time  they  used  more  and  more  general 
words,  when  they  addressed  the  powers  (of  nature) 
as  bright,  or  rich,  or  mighty,  all  these  were  meant 
for  something  else,  for  something  they  were  seek- 
ing for,  if  haply  they  might  feel  after  Him  and 
find  Him.  This  is  St.  Paul's  view  of  the  growth 
of  religion.  Ibid. 


When  God  has  once  been  conceived  without 
"any  manner  of  similitude,"  He  may  be  med- 
itated on,  revered,  and  adored,  but  that  fervent 
passion  of  the  human  breast,  that  love  with  all 
our  heart,  and  all  our  soul,  and  all  our  might, 
seems  to  become  hushed  before  that  solemn  pres- 
ence. We  may  love  our  father  and  mother  with 
all  our  heart,  we  may  cling  to  our  children  with 
all  our  soul,  we  may  be  devoted  to  wife,  or  hus- 
band, or  friend,  with  all  our  might,  but  to  throw 


56  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

all  these  feelings  in  their  concentrated  force  and 
truth  on  the  Deity  has  been  given  to  very  few  on 
earth.  Ibid. 


If  the  history  of  religion  has  taught  us  any- 
thing, it  has  taught  us  to  distinguish  between  the 
names  and  the  thing  named.  The  names  may 
change,  and  become  more  and  more  perfect,  and 
our  concepts  of  the  deity  may  become  more  perfect 
also,  but  the  deity  itself  is  not  affected  by  our 
names.  However  much  the  names  may  differ  and 
change,  there  remains,  as  the  last  result  of  the 
study  of  religion,  the  everlasting  conviction  that 
behind  all  the  names  there  is  something  named, 
that  there  is  an  agent  behind  all  acts,  that  there 
is  an  Infinite  behind  the  Finite,  that  there  is  a 
God  in  Nature;  that  God  is  the  abiding  goal  of 
many  names,  all  well  meant  and  well  aimed,  and 
yet  all  far,  far  away  from  the  goal  which  no  man 
can  see  and  live.  All  names  that  human  language 
has  invented  may  be  imperfect.  But  the  name 
"I  am  that  I  am"  will  remain  for  those  who 
think  Semitic  thought,  while  to  those  who 
speak  Aryan  languages  it  will  be  difficult  to 
invent  a  better  name  than  the  Vedanta  Sa£- 
/.id-ananda,  He  who  is,  who  knows,  who  is 
blessed.  Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  57 

However  much  we  may  cease  to  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  the  faith  of  our  childhood,  the  faith  in 
a  superintending  and  ever-present  Providence 
grows  only  stronger  the  more  we  see  of  life,  the 
more  we  know  of  ourselves.  When  that  bass- 
note  is  right,  we  may  indulge  in  many  variations 
— we  shall  never  go  entirely  wrong.  MS. 


We  do  not  see  the  hand  that  takes  our  dear  ones 
from  us,  but  we  know  whose  hand  it  is,  whose  will 
it  is.  We  have  no  name  for  Him,  we  do  not  know 
Him,  but  we  know  that  whatever  name  we  give, 
He  will  understand  it.  That  is  the  foundation  of 
all  religion.  Let  us  give  the  best  name  we  can  find 
in  us,  let  us  know  that  even  that  must  be  a  very 
imperfect  name,  but  let  us  trust  that  if  we  only 
believe  in  that  name,  if  we  use  it,  not  because  it  is 
the  fashion,  but  because  we  can  find  no  better  name, 
He  will  understand  and  forgive.  Every  name  is 
true,  if  we  are  true;  every  name  is  false,  if  we  are 
false.  If  we  are  true,  our  religion  is  true;  if  we 
are  false  our  religion  is  false.  An  honest  fetish 
worshipper   even    is  better  than  a  scoffing  Pope. 

MS. 

In  the  ordinary  sense  of  knowledge,  we  cannot 
have  any  knowledge  of  God;    our  very  idea  of 


58  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

God  implies  that  He  is  beyond  our  powers  of 
perception  and  understanding.  Then  what  can 
we  do  ?  Shut  our  eyes  and  be  silent  ?  That  will 
not  satisfy  creatures  such  as  we  are.  We  must 
speak,  but  all  our  words  apply  to  things  percepti- 
ble or  intelligible.  The  old  Buddhists  used  to 
say,  The  only  thing  we  can  say  of  God  is  No,  No! 
He  is  not  this,  He  is  not  that.  Whatever  we  can 
see  or  understand,  He  is  not  that.  But  again  I 
say  that  kind  of  self-denial  will  not  satisfy  such 
creatures  as  we  are.  What  can  we  do  ?  We 
can  only  give  the  best  we  have.  Now  the  best 
we  have  or  know  on  earth  is  Love,  therefore  we 
say  God  is  Love  or  loving.  Love  is  entire  self- 
surrender,  we  can  go  no  further  in  our  conception 
of  what  is  best.  And  yet  how  poor  a  name  it  is 
in  comparison  of  what  we  want  to  name.  Our 
idea  of  love  includes  humility,  a  looking  up  and 
worshipping.  Can  we  say  that  of  God's  love  ? 
Depend  upon  it,  the  best  we  say  is  but  poor 
endeavour — it  is  well  we  should  know  it — and 
yet,  if  it  is  the  best  we  have  and  can  give,  we  need 
not  be  ashamed.  Life. 


And  now  that  generations  after  generations 
have  passed  away,  with  their  languages — adoring 
and  worshipping  the  Name   of  God — preaching 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  59 

and  dying  in  the  Name  of  God — thinking  and 
meditating  on  the  Name  of  God — there  the  old 
word  stands  still,  breathing  to  us  the  pure  air  of 
the  dawn  of  humanity,  carrying  with  it  all  the 
thoughts  and  sighs,  the  doubts  and  tears,  of  our 
bygone  brethren,  and  still  rising  up  to  heaven 
with  the  same  sound  from  the  basilicas  of  Rome 
and  the  temples  of  Benares,  as  if  embracing  by 
its  simple  spell  millions  and  millions  of  hearts  in 
their  longing  desire  to  give  utterance  to  the  unutter- 
able, to  express  the  inexpressible.  Ibid, 


THE   DIVINE 

It  was,  after  all,  the  Jew  who,  in  the  great 
history  of  the  world,  was  destined  to  solve  the 
riddle  of  the  Divine  in  man.  It  was  the  soil  of 
Jewish  thought  that  in  the  end  gave  birth  to  the 
true  conception  of  the  relation  between  the  Divine 
in  nature  and  the  Divine  in  man. 

Gifjord  Lectures,  III. 


When  the  Divine  in  the  outward  world  has  once 
been  fully  recognised,  there  can  be  nothing  more 
or  less  divine,  nothing  more  or  less  miraculous, 
either  in  nature  or  in  history.  Those  who  assign 
a  divine  and  miraculous  character  to  certain  con- 
secrated events  only  in  the  history  of  the  wTorld, 
are  in  great  danger  of  desecrating  thereby  the 
whole  drama  of  history,  and  of  making  it,  not  only 
profane,  but  godless.  It  is  easy  to  call  this  a 
pantheistic  view  of  the  world.  It  is  pantheistic, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  so  much  so  that  any 
other  view  would  soon  become  atheistic.  Even 
the  Greeks  suspected  the  omnipresence  of  the 
Divine,  when,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Thales,  they 

60 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  61 

declared  that  all  is  full  of  the  gods.  The  choice 
here  lies  really  between  Pantheism  and  Atheism. 
If  anything,  the  greatest  or  the  smallest,  can  ever 
happen  without  the  will  of  God,  then  God  is  no 
longer  God.  To  distinguish  between  a  direct  and 
indirect  influence  of  the  Divine,  to  admit  a  general 
and  a  special  providence,  is  like  a  relapse  into 
Polytheism,  a  belief  in  one  and  many  gods. 

Ibid. 

Human  nature  is  divine  nature  modified.  It 
can  be  nothing  else.  Christ,  in  shaking  off  all 
that  is  not  Divine  in  man,  let  us  call  it  by  one 
general  name,  all  that  is  selfish,  resumed  His  own 
divinity.  MS. 


God  comes  to  us  in  the  likeness  of  man — there 
is  no  other  likeness  for  God.  And  that  likeness 
is  not  forbidden;  Christ  has  taught  us  to  see  and 
love  God  in  man.  We  cannot  go  further.  If 
we  attempt  to  conceive  anything  more  than 
human,  our  mind  breaks  down.  But  we  can  con- 
ceive and  perceive  the  Divine  in  man,  and  most 
in  those  who  are  risen  from  the  earth.  While 
we  live  our  love  is  human,  and  mixed  with  earthly 
things.  We  love  and  do  not  love — we  even  hate, 
or  imagine  we  do.     But  we  do  not  really  hate 


62  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

any  man,  we  only  hate  something  that  surrounds 
and  hides  man.  What  is  behind,  the  true  nature 
of  man,  we  always  love.  Death  purifies  man, 
it  takes  away  the  earthly  crust,  and  we  can  love 
those  who  are  dead  far  better  than  those  who  are 
still  living:  that  is  the  truth.  We  do  not  deceive 
ourselves,  we  do  not  use  vain  words.  Love  is 
really  purer,  stronger  and  more  unselfish,  when 
it  embraces  those  who  are  risen.  That  is  why 
the  Apostles  loved  Christ  so  much  better  when 
He  was  no  longer  with  them.  While  He  lived, 
Peter  could  deny  Him — when  He  had  returned  to 
the  Father,  Peter  was  willing  to  die  for  Him.  All 
that  is  so  true,  only  one  must  have  gone  through 
it,  felt  it  oneself  in  order  to  understand  it.  If  one 
knows  the  love  one  feels  for  the  blessed,  one 
wants  no  temporary  resurrection  to  account  for 
the  re-kindled  love  of  the  Apostles.  They  believed 
that  Christ  had  truly  risen,  that  death  had  no  power 
over  Him,  that  He  was  with  the  Father.  Was 
not  that  more,  far  more,  than  a  return  to  this 
fleeting  life  for  a  few  hours,  or  days,  or  weeks, 
or  than  an  ascent  through  the  clouds  to  the  blue 
sky?  Ah!  how  the  great  truths  have  been  ex- 
changed for  small  fancies,  the  mira  for  the  miracula. 

MS. 


DOUBTS 

There  is  an  atheism  which  is  unto  death,  there 
is  another  atheism  which  is  the  life  blood  of  all 
true  faith.  It  is  the  power  of  giving  up  what,  in 
our  best,  our  most  honest,  moments,  we  know  to 
be  no  longer  true;  it  is  the  readiness  to  replace 
the  less  perfect,  however  dear,  however  sacred 
it  may  have  been  to  us,  by  the  more  perfect, 
however  much  it  may  be  detested,  as  yet,  by  the 
world.  It  is  the  true  self-surrender,  the  true  self- 
sacrifice,  the  truest  trust  in  truth,  the  truest  faith. 
Without  that  atheism  religion  would  long  ago 
have  become  a  petrified  hypocrisy;  without  that 
atheism  no  new  religion,  no  reform,  no  reforma- 
tion, no  resuscitation  would  ever  have  been  possi- 
ble; without  that  atheism  no  new  life  is  possible 
for  any  one  of  us.  Hibbert  Lectures. 


There  is  certainly  no  happier  life  than  a  life  of 
simple  faith;  of  literal  acceptance,  of  rosy  dreams. 
We  must  all  grant  that,  if  it  were  possible,  nothing 
would  be  more  perfect.  I  gladly  acknowledge 
that  some  of  the  happiest,  and  also  some  of  the 

63 


64  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

best  men  and  women  I  have  known,  were  those 
who  would  have  shrunk  with  horror  from  ques- 
tioning a  single  letter  of  the  Bible,  or  doubting 
that  a  serpent  actually  spoke  to  Eve,  and  an  ass 
to  Balaam.  But  can  we  prevent  the  light  of  the 
sun  and  the  noises  of  the  street  from  waking  the 
happy  child  from  his  heavenly  dreams  ?  Nay, 
is  it  not  our  duty  to  wake  the  child,  when  the  time 
has  come  that  he  must  be  up  and  doing,  and  take 
his  share  in  the  toils  of  the  day  ?  And  is  it  not 
well  for  those  who  for  the  first  time  open  their 
eyes  and  look  around,  that  they  should  see  by 
their  side  some  who  have  woke  before  them,  who 
understand  their  inquiring  looks,  and  can  answer 
their  timid  questions  and  tell  them  in  the  simple- 
hearted  language  of  the  old  poet: 

'There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. " 

Gifford  Lectures,  III. 

How  many  men  in  all  countries  and  all  ages  have 
been  called  atheists,  not  because  they  denied  that 
there  existed  anything  beyond  the  visible  and  the 
finite,  or  because  they  declared  that  the  world, 
such  as  it  was,  could  be  explained  without  a  cause, 
without  a  purpose,  without  a  God,  but  often  be- 
cause they  differed  only  from  the  traditional  con- 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  65 

ception  of  the  Deity  prevalent  at  the  time,  and 
were  yearning  after  a  higher  conception  of  God 
than  what  they  had  learnt  in  their  childhood. 

Ibid. 

There  are  moments  in  our  life  when  those  who 
seek  most  earnestly  after  God  think  they  are  for- 
saken of  God;  when  they  hardly  venture  to  ask 
themselves,  Do  I  then  believe  in  God,  or  do  I  not  ? 
Let  them  not  despair,  and  let  us  not  judge  harshly 
of  them;  their  despair  may  be  better  than  many 
creeds.  .  .  .  Honest  doubt  is  the  deepest 
spring  of  honest  faith;  only  he  who  has  lost  can  find. 

Ibid. 

If  we  have  once  claimed  the  freedom  of  the 
spirit  which  St.  Paul  claimed:  to  prove  all  things 
and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good:  we  cannot  turn 
back,  we  cannot  say  that  no  one  shall  prove  our 
own  religion,  no  one  shall  prove  other  religions 
and  compare  them  with  our  own.  We  have  to 
choose  once  for  all  between  freedom  and  slavery 
of  judgment,  and  though  I  do  not  wish  to  argue 
with  those  who  prefer  slavery,  yet  one  may  remind 
them  that  even  they,  in  deliberately  choosing  slav- 
ery, follow  their  own  private  judgment,  quite  as 
much  as  others  do  in  choosing  freedom. 

Gi fjord  Lectures,  III. 


66  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Our  own  self  interest  surely  would  seem  to  sug- 
gest as  severe  a  trial  of  our  own  religion  as  of  other 
religions,  nay,  even  a  more  severe  trial.  Our 
religion  has  sometimes  been  compared  to  a  good 
ship  that  is  to  carry  us  through  the  waves  and  tem- 
pests of  this  life  to  a  safe  haven.  Would  it  not  be 
wise,  therefore,  to  have  it  tested,  and  submitted  to 
the  severest  trials,  before  we  intrust  ourselves  and 
those  dear  to  us  to  such  a  vessel.  And  remember, 
all  men,  except  those  who  take  part  in  the  founda- 
tion of  a  new  religion,  or  have  been  converted  from 
an  old  to  a  new  faith,  have  to  accept  their  religious 
belief  on  trust,  long  before  they  are  able  to  judge 
for  themselves.  And  while  in  all  other  matters  an 
independent  judgment  in  riper  years  is  encouraged, 
every  kind  of  influence  is  used  to  discourage  a  free 
examination  of  religious  dogmas,  once  engrafted 
on  our  intellect  in  its  tenderest  stage.  We  con- 
demn an  examination  of  our  own  religion,  even 
though  it  arises  from  an  honest  desire  to  see  with 
our  own  eyes  the  truth  which  we  mean  to  hold  fast; 
and  yet  we  do  not  hesitate  to  send  missionaries  into 
all  the  world,  asking  the  faithful  to  re-examine 
their  own  time-honoured  religions.  We  attack 
their  most  sacred  convictions,  we  wound  their  ten- 
derest feelings,  we  undermine  the  belief  in  which 
they  have  been  brought  up,  and  we  break  up  the 
peace  and  happiness  of  their  homes.     Yet,  if  some 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  67 

learned  Jew,  or  subtle  Brahman,  or  outspoken 
Zulu,  asks  us  to  re-examine  the  date  and  author- 
ship of  the  Old  or  New  Testament,  or  challenges 
us  to  produce  the  evidence  on  which  we  also  are 
quite  ready  to  accept  certain  miracles,  we  are 
offended,  forgetting  that  with  i'egard  to  these  ques- 
tions we  can  claim  no  privilege,  no  immunity. 

Ibid. 

If  we  can  respect  a  childlike  and  even  a  childish 
faith,  we  ought  likewise  to  learn  to  respect  even  a 
philosophical  atheism  which  often  contains  the 
hidden  seeds  of  the  best  and  truest  faith.  We 
ought  never  to  call  a  man  an  atheist,  and  say  that 
he  does  not  believe  in  God,  till  we  know  what  kind 
of  God  it  is  he  has  been  brought  up  to  believe  in, 
and  what  kind  of  God  it  is  that  he  rejects,  it  may 
be,  from  the  best  and  highest  motives.  We  ought 
never  to  forget  that  Socrates  was  called  an  atheist, 
that  the  early  Christians  were  all  called  atheists, 
that  some  of  the  best  and  greatest  men  this  world 
has  ever  known  have  been  branded  by  that  name. 

Ibid. 

I  have  heard  and  read  the  worst  that  can  be  said 
against  our  religion — I  mean  the  true  original 
teaching  of  Christ — and  I  feel  that  I  am  ready  in 
mind,  if  not  in  body,  to  lay  down  my  life  for  the 


68  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

truth  of  His  teaching.  All  our  difficulties  arise 
from  the  doctrines  of  men,  not  from  His  doctrine. 
There  is  no  outward  evidence  of  the  truth  of  His 
doctrine,  but  the  Spirit  of  God  that  is  within  us 
testifieth  to  its  truth.  If  it  does  not,  we  are  not  yet 
disciples  of  Christ,  but  we  may  be  hereafter. 

Life. 

Be  certain  of  this,  that  to  repress  a  doubt  is  to 
repress  the  spirit  of  truth;  a  doubt  well  spoken 
out  is  generally  a  doubt  solved.  But  all  this  re- 
quires great  seriousness  of  mind — it  must  assume 
an  importance  greater  than  anything  else  in  life, 
and  then  we  can  fight  our  way  through  it.  God 
is  with  us  in  our  struggles.  Ibid. 


{ 


EVOLUTION   OF   RELIGION 

Evolution  is  really  the  same  as  history,  if  we 
take  it  in  its  objective  sense.  Subjectively,  history 
meant  originally  inquiry,  or  a  desire  to  know;  it 
then  came  to  mean  knowledge,  obtained  by  inquiry; 
and  lastly,  in  a  purely  objective  sense,  the  objects 
of  such  knowledge.  Gifford  Lectures,  I. 


We  may  discover  in  all  the  errors  of  mythology, 
and  in  what  we  call  the  false  or  pagan  religions  of 
this  world,  a  progress  toward  truth,  a  yearning 
after  something  more  than  finite,  a  growing  recog- 
nition of  the  Infinite,  throwing  off  some  of  its  veils 
before  our  eyes,  and  from  century  to  century  reveal- 
ing itself  to  us  more  and  more  in  its  own  purity  and 
holiness.  And  thus  the  two  concepts,  that  of  evo- 
lution and  that  of  revelation,  which  seem  at  first 
so  different,  become  one  in  the  end.  If  there  is  a 
purpose  running  through  the  ages,  if  nature  is  not 
blind,  if  there  are  agents,  recognised  at  last  as  the 
agents  of  one  Will,  behind  the  whole  phenomenal 
world,  then  the  evolution  of  man's  belief  in  that 
Supreme  Will  is  itself  the  truest  revelation  of  that 

69 


7o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Supreme  Will,  and  must  remain  the  adamantine 
foundation  on  which  all  religion  rests,  whether  we 
call  it  natural  or  supernatural. 

Gifford  Lectures,  II. 

The  same  changes  in  the  idea  of  God,  which  we 
see  in  the  different  books  of  the  Bible,  take  place 
in  the  different  chapters  of  our  own  life.  The 
child  cannot  but  represent  God  to  himself  as  a 
venerable  man,  walking  about,  warning  and 
reproving  the  creatures  He  has  made.  The  child 
has  no  higher  conception  as  yet,  which  it  could 
apply  to  God ;  if  it  heard  of  a  higher  one  it  could  not 
grasp  it.  But  as  the  child  grows  and  gathers  in 
higher  conceptions,  the  lower  must  give  way  to  the 
higher.  As  long  as  the  evidence  of  the  senses  is 
the  only  evidence  which  a  child  knows,  he  demands 
a  visible  God.  When  he  learns  that  the  human 
senses  are  different  modes  of  apprehension,  that 
according  to  their  very  nature  they  can  never 
apprehend  except  what  is  limited,  then  the  mind 
involuntarily  surrenders  the  visible  God,  it  believes 
in  God  as  a  Spirit.  And  so  the  growth  of  each 
man,  and  the  growth  of  the  whole  human  race, 
goes  on,  and  will  go  on,  and  I  cannot  see  how,  if 
the  world  goes  on  as  it  has  hitherto,  it  can  be  other- 
wise but  that  much  of  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament    also    will    have    to    be    surrendered. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  71 

Changes  have  lately  taken  place  with  the  word 
person!  Many  things  which  were  formerly  com- 
prehended under  personality,  have  been  discovered 
to  be  mere  accessories,  and  above  the  more  mate- 
rial conception  of  personality,  of  individuality,  or 
of  the  I,  a  higher  one  is  rising,  that  of  the  Self. 
The  I,  the  personality,  is  made  up  of  many  things 
which  are  purely  temporal — which  are  dear  to  us 
on  earth,  but  which  will  pass  away,  while  the  Self 
will  abide  for  ever.  Need  we  wonder  therefore 
that  just  those  who  wish  to  transfer  only  their 
highest  to  the  Godhead  begin  to  shrink  from 
speaking  of  a  personal  God  ?  or  insist  on  defining 
the  word  personal  so  that  it  should  exclude  all 
that  is  incompatible  with  a  perfect,  unlimited, 
unchanging  Being  ?  What  led  to  such  expressions 
as,  God  is  Love,  but  a  feeling  of  reverence,  which 
shrank  from  speaking  of  God  as  loving  as  we  love  ? 
This  process  will  go  on  as  long  as  the  thoughts  and 
words  of  mankind  grow  and  change.  Let  us  learn 
only  from  the  Bible  that  those  who  spoke  of  God 
as  walking  about  in  Paradise,  spoke  as  children, 
did  the  best  they  could,  gave  all  they  had,  and  who 
shall  say  that  their  two  mites  were  in  the  sight  of 
God  less  precious  than  all  our  creeds  and  philos- 
ophies ?  They  too  will  change,  they  too  will  be 
looked  upon  by  future  generations  as  the  language 
of  children.     But  He  to  whom  our  thoughts  and 


72 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


prayers  are  addressed  will  interpret  all  languages 
and  dialects.  Before  Him  the  wisdom  of  the  man 
will  not  sound  much  wiser  than  the  trustful  ignor- 
ance of  the  child.  MS. 


FAITH 

Next  to  our  faith  in  God  there  is  nothing  so 
essential  to  the  healthy  growth  of  our  whole  being 
as  an  unshaken  faith  in  man. 

Chips  from  a  German   Workshop. 

Let  us  trust  in  Him  to  whom  alone  we  owe  all 
our  blessings — if  we  do  not  forsake  Him,  He  will 
never  forsake  us — we  cannot  fathom  His  love,  but 
we  can  trust.  MS. 


Separation  loses  its  bitterness  when  we  have 
faith  in  each  other  and  in  God.  Faith  in  each 
other  keeps  us  close  together  in  life,  and  faith  in 
God  keeps  us  together  in  eternity.  MS. 


Those  who  remember  the  happiness  of  the 
simple  faith  of  their  childhood  may  well  ask 
why  it  should  ever  be  disturbed.  Knowing 
the  blessedness  of  that  faith  we  naturally  abstain 
from  everything  that  might  disturb  it  pre- 
maturely    in     the     minds     of    those    who     are 

73 


74  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

intrusted  to  us.  But,  as  the  child,  whether 
he  likes  it  or  not,  grows  to  be  a  man,  so 
the  faith  of  a  child  grows  into  the  faith  of 
a  man.  It  is  not  our  doing,  it  is  the  work 
of  Him  who  made  us  what  we  are.  As  all 
our  other  ideas  grow  and  change,  so  does 
our  idea  of  God.  I  know  there  are  men  and 
women  who,  when  they  perceive  the  first  warn- 
ings of  that  inward  growth,  become  frightened 
and  suppress  it  with  all  their  might.  They 
shut  their  eyes  and  ears  to  all  new  light  from 
within  and  from  without.  They  wish  to  remain 
as  happy  as  children,  and  many  of  them 
succeed  in  remaining  as  good  as  children.  Who 
would  blame  them  or  disturb  them  ?  But  those 
who  trust  in  God  and  God's  work  within  them, 
must  go  forth  to  the  battle.  With  them  it  would 
be  cowardice  and  faithlessness  to  shrink  from  the 
trial.  They  are  not  certain  that  they  were  meant 
to  be  here  simply  to  enjoy  the  happiness  of  a  child- 
like faith.  They  feel  they  have  a  talent  committed 
to  them  which  must  not  be  wrapped  up  in  a  napkin. 
But  the  battle  is  hard,  and  all  the  harder  because 
while  they  know  they  are  obeying  the  voice  of 
truth,  which  is  the  voice  of  God,  many  of  those 
whom  they  love  look  upon  them  as  disobeying  the 
voice  of  God,  as  disturbers  of  the  peace,  as  giving 
offence  to  those  little  ones.  MS. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  75 

There  is  a  difference  between  the  childlike  faith 
of  a  man  (all  real  faith  must  be  childlike)  and  the 
childlike  faith  of  a  child.  The  one  is  Paradise 
not  yet  Lost,  the  other  Paradise  lost  but  regained. 
The  one  is  right  for  the  child,  the  other  is  right  for 
the  man.  It  is  the  will  of  God  that  it  should  be  so 
— but  it  is  also  the  will  of  God  that  we  should  all 
bear  with  each  other,  and  join,  each  in  his  own 
voice,  in  the  great  hymn  of  praise.  MS. 


Faith  is  that  organ  of  knowledge  by  which  we 
apprehend  the  Infinite,  namely,  whatever  tran- 
scends the  ken  of  our  senses  and  the  grasp  of  our 
reason.  The  Infinite  is  hidden  from  the  senses, 
it  is  denied  by  Reason,  but  it  is  perceived  by  Faith; 
and  it  is  perceived,  if  once  perceived,  as  underlying 
both  the  experience  of  the  senses  and  the  combina- 
tions of  reason.  Science  of  Language. 


THE   FATHERHOOD   OF   GOD 

Wherever   our    Father  leads  us  there  is  our 
Fatherland.  Life. 


Man  must  discover  that  God  is  his  Father  before 
he  can  become  a  son  of  God.  To  know  is  here  to 
be,  to  be  to  know.  No  mere  miracle  will  make 
man  the  son  of  God.  That  sonship  can  be  gained 
through  knowledge  only,  "through  man  knowing 
God,  or  rather  being  known  of  God,"  and  till  it  is 
so  gained,  it  does  not  exist,  even  though  it  be  a 
fact.  If  we  apply  this  to  the  words  in  which 
Christ  speaks  of  Himself  as  the  Son  of  God,  we 
shall  see  that  to  Him  it  is  no  miracle,  it  is  no  mys- 
tery, it  is  no  question  of  supernatural  contrivance; 
it  is  simply  clear  knowledge,  and  it  was  this  self- 
knowledge  which  made  Christ  what  He  was,  it 
was  this  whicH  constituted  His  true,  His  eternal 
divinity.  Gifford  Lectures,  III. 


76 


FUTURE   LIFE 

One  wonders  indeed  how  kindred  souls  become 
separated,  and  one  feels  startled  and  repelled  at 
the  thought  that,  such  as  they  were  on  earth,  they 
can  never  meet  again.  And  yet  there  is  continuity 
in  the  world,  there  is  no  flaw,  no  break  anywhere, 
and  what  has  been  will  surely  be  again,  though 
how  it  will  be  we  cannot  know,  and  if  only  we  trust 
in  the  Wisdom  that  pervades  and  overshadows  the 
whole  Universe,  we  need  not  know. 

Auld  Lang  Syne. 

Even  if  we  resign  ourselves  to  the  thought  that 
the  likenesses  and  likelihoods  which  we  project 
upon  the  unseen  and  unknown,  nay,  that  the  hope 
of  our  meeting  again  as  we  once  met  on  earth, 
need  not  be  fulfilled  exactly  as  we  shape  them  to 
ourselves,  where  is  the  argument  to  make  us  believe 
that  the  real  fulfilment  can  be  less  perfect  than 
what  even  a  weak  human  heart  devises  and  desires  ? 
This  trust  that  whatever  is  will  be  best,  is  what  is 
meant  by  faith,  true,  because  inevitable,  faith. 
We  see  traces  of  it  in  many  places  and  many 
religions,  but  I  doubt  whether  anywhere  that  faith 

77 


78  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

is  more  simply  and  more  powerfully  expressed  than 
in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments:  "For  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world  men  have  not  heard,  nor 
perceived  by  the  ear,  neither  hath  the  eye  seen, 
Oh  God  beside  Thee,  what  He  hath  prepared  for 
him  that  waiteth  for  Him"  (Isaiah,  lxiv.  4).  "As 
it  is  written,  Eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the 
things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  Him"  (I.  Cor.  ii.,  9). 

Hibbert  Lectures. 

The  highest  which  man  can  comprehend  is 
man.  One  step  only  he  may  go  beyond,  and  say 
that  what  is  beyond  may  be  different,  but  it  can- 
not be  less  perfect  than  the  present;  the  future 
cannot  be  worse  than  the  past.  .  .  .  That 
much-decried  philosophy  of  evolution,  if  it  teaches 
us  anything,  teaches  us  a  firm  belief  in  a  better 
future,  and  in  a  higher  perfection  which  man  is 
destined  to  reach.  Ibid. 


In  our  longings  for  the  departed  we  often  think 
of  them  as  young  or  old;  we  think  of  them  as  man 
or  woman,  as  father  or  mother,  as  husband  or 
wife.  Even  nationality  and  language  are  sup- 
posed to  remain  after  death,  and  we  often  hear 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  79 

expressions,  "Oh!  if  the  souls  are  without  all 
this,  without  age,  and  sex,  and  national  character, 
without  even  their  native  language,  what  will 
they  be  to  us?"  The  answer  is,  they  will  really 
be  the  same  to  us  they  were  in  this  life.  Unless 
we  can  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  a  soul  has 
a  beginning,  and  that  our  soul  sprang  into  being 
at  the  time  of  our  birth,  the  soul  within  us  must 
have  existed  before.  But  however  convinced  we 
may  be  of  the  soul's  eternal  existence,  we  shall 
always  remain  ignorant  as  to  how  it  existed.  And 
yet  we  do  not  murmur  or  complain.  Our  soul 
on  awakening  here  is  not  quite  a  stranger  to  itself, 
and  the  souls  who  as  our  parents,  our  wives,  and 
husbands,  our  children,  and  our  friends,  have 
greeted  us  at  first  as  strangers  in  this  life,  have 
become  to  us  as  if  we  had  known  them  forever, 
and  as  if  we  could  never  lose  them  again.  If  it 
were  to  be  so  again  in  the  next  life,  if  there  also 
we  should  meet  at  first  as  strangers  till  drawn 
together  by  the  same  mysterious  love  that  has 
drawn  us  together  here,  why  should  we  murmur 
or  complain  ?  Thousands  of  years  ago  we  read 
of  a  husband  telling  his  wife,  "Verily  a  wife  is 
not  dear  that  you  may  love  the  wife,  but  that  you 
may  love  the  soul,  therefore  a  wife  is  dear." 
What  does  that  mean  ?  It  means  that  true  love 
consists  not  in  loving  what  is  perishable,  but  in 


So  LIFE  AND   RELIGION 

discovering  and  loving  what  is  eternal  in  man  or 
woman.  In  Sanscrit  that  eternal  part  is  called 
by  many  names,  but  the  best  seems  that  used  in 
this  passage,  Atma.  We  translate  it  by  Soul, 
but  it  is  even  higher  and  purer  than  Soul,  it  is 
best  translated  by  the  word  Self.  That  which 
constitutes  the  true  Self,  the  looker  on,  the  witness 
within  us,  that  which  is  everywhere  in  the  body 
and  yet  nowhere  to  be  touched,  that  which  cannot 
die  or  expire,  because  it  never  breathed,  that  is 
the  Infinite  in  man  which  philosophers  have  been 
groping  for,  though  "he  is  not  far  from  every  one 
of  us."     It  is  the  Divine  or  God-like  in  man. 

Gifford  Lectures,  III. 

The  southern  Aryans  were  absorbed  in  the 
struggles  of  thought;  their  past  is  the  problem  of 
creation,  their  future  the  problem  of  existence, 
and  the  present,  which  ought  to  be  the  solution 
of  both,  seems  never  to  have  attracted  their  atten- 
tion or  called  forth  their  energies.  There  never 
was  a  nation  believing  so  firmly  in  another 
world,  and  so  little  concerned  about  this.  Their 
condition  on  earth  was  to  them  a  problem;  their 
real  and  eternal  life  a  simple  fact.  Though  this 
is  true  chiefly  before  they  were  brought  in  contact 
with  foreign  conquerors,  traces  of  this  character 
are  still  visible  in  the  Hindus  as  described  by  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  81 

companions  of  Alexander,  nay,  even  in  the  Hindus 
of  the  present  day.  The  only  sphere  in  which  the 
Indian  mind  finds  itself  at  liberty  to  act,  to  create, 
and  to  worship,  is  the  sphere  of  religion  and 
philosophy,  and  nowhere  have  religious  and  meta- 
physical ideas  struck  root  so  deeply  in  the  mind  of  a 
nation  as  in  India.  History  supplies  no  second  in- 
stance where  the  inward  life  of  the  soul  has  so  com- 
pletely absorbed  all  the  other  faculties  of  a  people. 

India. 

Our  happiness  here  is  but  a  foretaste  of  our 
blessed  life  hereafter.  We  must  never  forget  that. 
We  shall  be  called  away,  but  we  shall  meet  again. 

Life. 

We  must  have  patience — and  we  all  cling  to 
life  as  long  as  there  are  those  who  love  us 
here.  Those  who  love  us  there  are  always  ours. 
Nothing  is  lost  in  the  world.  How  it  will  be, 
we  know  not,  but  if  we  have  recognised  the  work- 
ing of  a  divine  wisdom  and  love  here  on  earth, 
we  can  take  comfort,  and  wait  patiently  for  that 
which  is  to  come.  Ibid. 


Truly   those   who    die   young   are   blest.     And 
shall  we  find  them  again  such  as  they  left  us  ? 


82  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Why  not  ?  It  is  really  here  on  earth  that  those 
whom  we  love  change,  it  is  here  that  they  die 
every  day.  .  .  .  Where  are  all  those  bright 
joyous  faces  which  we  look  at  when  we  open  our 
photograph  books  from  year  to  year  ?  On  earth 
they  are  lost,  but  are  they  not  treasured  up  for 
another  life,  where  we  shall  be  not  only  what  we 
are  from  day  to  day,  never  the  same  to-morrow 
as  we  were  yesterday,  but  where  we  are  at  once 
all  that  we  can  be — where  memory  is  not  different 
from  perception,  nor  our  wills  different  from  our 
acts  ?  We  shall  soon  know — till  then  surely  we 
have  a  right  to  be  what  we  are,  and  to  cling  to 
our  human  hopes.  The  more  human  they  are, 
the  nearer  the  truth  they  are  likely  to  be. 

Ibid. 

I  believe  in  all  our  hopes  we  cannot  be  human 
enough.  Let  us  be  what  we  are — men,  feel  as 
men,  sorrow  as  men,  hope  as  men.  It  is  true 
our  hopes  are  human,  but  what  are  the  doubts 
and  difficulties  ?  Are  they  not  human  too  ?  Shall 
we  meet  again  as  we  left  ?  Why  not  ?  We  do 
not  know  how  it  will  be  so,  but  who  has  a  right 
to  say  it  cannot  be  so  ?  Let  us  imagine  and  hope 
for  the  best  that,  as  men,  we  can  conceive,  and 
then  rest  convinced  that  it  will  be  a  thousand 
times  better.  Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  83 

The  inward  voice  never  suggested  or  allowed 
me  the  slightest  doubt  or  misgiving  about  the 
reality  of  a  future  life.  If  there  is  continuity  in 
the  world  everywhere  why  should  there  be  a 
wrench  and  annihilation  only  with  us  ?  It  will 
be  as  it  has  been — that  is  the  lesson  we 
learn  from  nature — how  it  will  be  we  are  not 
meant  to  know.  There  is  an  old  Greek  saying 
to  the  effect,  to  try  to  know  what  the  gods 
did  not  tell  us,  is  not  piety.  If  God  wished 
us  to  know  what  is  to  be,  He  would  tell  us. 
Darwin  has  shown  us  that  there  is  continuity 
from  beginning  to  end.  Ibid. 


I  believe  in  the  continuity  of  Self.  If  there 
were  an  annihilation  or  complete  change  of  our 
individual  self-consciousness  we  might  become 
somebody  else,  but  we  should  not  be  ourselves. 
Personally,  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  persistence  of 
the  individual  after  death,  as  we  call  it.  I 
cannot  imagine  the  very  crown  and  flower 
of  creation  being  destroyed  by  its  author.  I 
do  not  say  it  is  impossible,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
say  either  yes  or  no;  we  have  simply  to  trust, 
but  that  trust  or  faith  is  implanted  in  us,  and 
is  strengthened  by  everything  around  us. 

Ibid. 


84  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Do  we  really  lose  those  who  are  called  before 
us  ?  I  feel  that  they  are  even  nearer  to  us  than 
when  they  were  with  us  in  life.  We  must  take  a 
larger  view.  Our  life  does  not  end  here,  if  only 
we  can  see  that  our  horizon  here  is  but  like  a  cur- 
tain that  separates  us  from  what  is  beyond.  Those 
who  go  before  us  are  beyond  our  horizon  at  pres- 
ent, but  we  have  no  right  to  suppose  that  they 
have  completely  vanished.  We  cannot  see  them, 
that  is  all.  And  even  that,  we  know,  can  last  for 
a  short  time  only.  We  have  lived  and  done  our 
work  in  life,  before  we  knew  those  we  loved,  and 
we  may  have  to  live  the  same  number  of  years 
separated  from  them.  But  nothing  can  be  lost: 
it  depends  on  ourselves  to  keep  those  we  loved 
always  near  to  our  thoughts,  even  though  our 
eyes  look  in  vain  for  them.  The  world  is  larger 
than  this  little  earth,  our  thoughts  go  further  than 
this  short  life,  and  if  we  can  but  find  our  home 
in  this  larger  world,  we  shall  find  that  this  larger 
home  is  full  of  those  whom  we  loved,  and  who 
loved  us.  There  is  no  chance  in  life;  a  few  years 
more,  a  few  years  less,  will  seem  as  nothing  to  us 
hereafter.  Ibid. 


I  fully  take  in  the  real  death  (of  my  child),  I 
know  I  shall  follow  and  die  the  same  real  death, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  85 

and  through  that  same  real  death  I  trust  the  spirit 
of  Christ  will  be  my  guide  and  helper,  and  bring 
me  to  a  better  life,  and  unite  me  again  with 
those  whom  I  have  loved,  and  whom  I  love  still, 
and  those  who  have  loved  me  and  love  me  still. 
God  is  no  giver  of  imperfect  gifts,  and  He  has 
given  me  life,  but  life  on  earth  is  imperfect.  He 
has  given  me  love,  but  love  on  earth  is  imperfect. 
I  believe,  I  must  believe  in  perfection,  and  there- 
fore I  believe  in  a  life  perfected,  and  in  a  love 
perfected.  "Hier  stehe  icb,  ich  kann  nicht  anders 
— Gott  helfe  mir,  A  men."  MS. 


It  seems  hard,  it  seems  so  unintelligible,  so  far 
above  us,  that  we  should  know  nothing  at  all  of 
what  is  to  come — that  we  should  be  so  com- 
pletely separated  for  a  time  from  those  whom  we 
love.  Whence  all  these  limits  ?  Whence  all  those 
desires  in  us  that  cannot  be  fulfilled  ?  The  limits 
teach  us  one  lesson,  that  we  are  in  the  hands  of  a 
Higher  Power.  Wonderful  as  our  body  and  our 
senses  are,  they  are  a  prison  and  chains,  and  they 
could  not  be  meant  for  anything  else.  MS. 


Of  what  is  to  come,  what  is  in  store  for  us,  we 
know  nothing,  and  the  more  we  know  that,  the 


86  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

greater  and  stronger  our  faith.  It  must  be  right, 
it  cannot  be  wrong.  Why  was  the  past  often  so 
beautiful  ?  Because  all  tends  to  beauty,  to  per- 
fection, and  the  highest  point  of  perfection  is  love. 
We  are  far  from  that  here,  yet  all  the  miseries  of 
this  life,  or  many  at  least,  would  vanish  before 
love.  Life  seems  most  unnatural  in  what  we  call 
the  most  highly  civilised  countries — the  struggle 
of  life  is  fiercest  there.  Rest  and  love  seem  impos- 
sible, and  yet  that  is  what  we  are  yearning  for, 
and  it  may  be  granted  us  hereafter.  MS. 


How  is  it  that  we  know  so  little  of  life  after 
death — that  we  can  hardly  imagine  anything 
without  feeling  that  it  is  all  human  poetry  ?  We 
are  to  believe  the  best,  but  nothing  definite, 
nothing  that  can  be  described.  It  is  the  same 
with  God,  we  are  to  believe  the  best  we  can 
believe,  and  yet  all  is  earthly,  human,  weak.  We 
are  in  a  dark  prison  here;  let  us  believe  that  out- 
side it  there  is  no  darkness  but  light — but  what 
light,  who  knows  ?  MS. 


Wait,  wait,  do  not  ask.  Children  ask  every 
year  what  the  Christ  Child  will  bring  them,  but 
they  are  not  told,  they  wait  in  the  dark   room. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  87 

Every  year  they  expect  something  quite  new, 
but  it  is  always  the  same  old  Christmas  Tree, 
with  its  lights  and  flowers,  and  all  the  rest.  And 
why  should  it  be  so  different  when  the  door  opens, 
and  we  step  out  of  this  dark  life  into  the  bright 
room  ?  Why  should  all  be  different  ?  We  have 
stepped  into  this  dark  room  here  on  earth,  and 
how  often  did  we  think  it  was  very  bright,  and 
very  warm.  We  shall  step  into  another  room,  and  it 
will  be  brighter,  warmer,  more  pure,  more  perfect. 

MS. 

What  is  past,  present,  future  ?  Is  it  not  all 
one — only  the  past  and  the  future  somewhere 
where  at  present  we  cannot  be  ?  Wait  a  little 
time,  and  the  eternal  will  take  place  of  the  pres- 
ent— and  we  shall  have  the  past  again — for  the 
past  is  not  lost.  Nothing  is  lost — but  this  waiting 
is  sometimes  very  hard,  and  this  longing  very 
hard.  Friends  go  on  all  sides,  it  seems  a  different 
world,  yet  there  is  work  to  do,  and  there  is  much 
left  to  love.  MS. 


If  immortality  is  meant  for  no  more  than  a  con- 
tinuance of  existence,  if  by  a  belief  in  immortality 
on  the  part  of  the  Jews  is  meant  no  more  than 
that  the  Jews  did  not  believe  in  the  annihilation 


88  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

of  the  soul  at  the  time  of  death,  we  may  con- 
fidently assert  that,  to  the  bulk  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  this  very  idea  of  annihilation  was  as  yet 
unfamiliar.  The  fact  is  that  the  idea  of  absolute 
annihilation  and  nothingness  is  hardly  ever  found 
except  among  people  whose  mind  has  received 
some  amount  of  philosophical  education,  cer- 
tainly more  than  what  the  Jews  possessed  in  early 
times.  The  Jews  did  not  believe  in  the  utter 
destruction  of  the  soul,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
their  idea  of  life  after  death  was  hardly  that  of 
life  at  all.  It  was  existence  without  life.  Death 
was  considered  by  them,  as  by  the  Greeks,  as  the 
greatest  of  misfortunes.  To  rejoice  in  death  is 
a  purely  Christian,  not  a  Jewish,  idea.  Though 
the  Jews  believed  that  the  souls  continued  to 
exist  in  Sheol,  they  did  not  believe  that  the  wicked 
would  there  be  punished  and  the  good  rewarded. 
All  rewards  and  punishments  for  virtue  or  vice 
were  confined  to  this  world,  and  a  long  life  was 
regarded  as  a  sure  proof  of  the  favour  of  Jehovah. 
It  was  the  Jewish  conception  of  God,  as  infinitely 
removed  from  this  world,  that  made  a  belief  in 
true  immortality  almost  impossible  for  them,  and 
excluded  all  hope  for  a  nearer  approach  to  God, 
or  for  any  share  in  that  true  immortality  which 
belonged  to  Him  and  to  Him  alone. 

Gifford  Lectures,  III, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  89 

Our  angels  live  in  heaven,  not  on  earth.  We 
only  recognise  the  angelic  in  man,  even  in  those 
we  love  the  most,  when  we  can  no  longer  see  them. 
They  are  then  nearer  us  than  ever,  we  love  them 
more  than  ever.  Happy  are  those  who  have  such 
angels  in  heaven,  who  draw  our  hearts  away  from 
earth  and  fill  them  with  longing  for  our  true 
home.  They  lighten  the  burden  of  life,  they  give  a 
quiet,  gentle  tone  to  the  joys  of  life,  and  they  teach 
us  to  love  those  who  are  left  to  us  on  earth,  it  may 
be  but  for  a  few  days  or  years,  with  a  love  which  we 
never  knew  before,  a  love  which  bears  all  things, 
believes  all  things,  and  gladly  pardons  all  things. 

MS. 

Life  eternal.  Why  do  we  so  seldom  face  the 
great  problem  ?  With  me  the  chief  reason  was 
the  conviction  that  we  can  know  nothing — that 
we  must  wait  and  trust — do  our  work  for  the  day 
which  is — and  believe  that  nothing  can  happen 
to  us  unless  God  wills  it.  Know,  where  knowledge  is 
possible;  believe,  trust,  where  faith  only  is  possible. 

MS. 

I  know  we  shall  meet  again,  for  God  does  not 
destroy  what  He  has  made,  nor  do  souls  meet  by 
accident.  This  life  is  full  of  riddles,  but  divine 
riddles  have  a  divine  solution.  Life. 


THE   INFINITE 

Though  we  cannot  know  things  finite,  as  they 
are  in  themselves,  we  know  at  all  events  that  they 
are.  And  this  applies  to  our  perception  of  the 
Infinite  also.  We  do  not  know  through  our  senses 
what  it  is,  but  we  know  through  our  very  senses 
that  it  is.  We  feel  the  pressure  of  the  Infinite  in 
the  Finite,  and  unless  we  had  that  feeling,  we  should 
have  no  true  and  safe  foundation  for  whatever  we 
may  afterward  believe  of  the  Infinite.  Some 
critics  have  urged  that  what  I  call  the  Infinite 
.  .  .  is  the  Indefinite  only.  Of  course  it  is. 
.  .  .  We  can  know  the  Infinite  as  the  In- 
definite only,  or  as  the  partially  defined.  We  try 
to  define  it,  and  to  know  it  more  and  more,  but  we 
never  finish  it.  The  whole  history  of  religion 
represents  the  continuous  progress  of  the  human 
definition  of  the  Infinite,  but  however  far  that 
definition  may  advance,  it  will  never  exhaust  the 
Infinite.  Could  we  define  it  all,  it  would  cease 
to  be  the  Infinite,  it  would  cease  to  be  the 
Unknown,  it  would  cease  to  be  the  Incon- 
ceivable or  the  Divine  . 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 
90 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  91 

What  we  feel  through  the  pressure  on  all  our 
senses  is  the  pressure  of  the  Infinite.  Our  senses, 
if  I  may  say  so,  feel  nothing  but  the  Infinite,  and 
out  of  that  plenitude  they  apprehend  the  Finite. 
To  apprehend  the  Finite  is  the  same  as  to  define 
the   Infinite.  Ibid. 


We  accept  the  primitive  savage  with  nothing  but 
his  five  senses.  These  five  senses  supply  him  with 
a  knowledge  of  finite  things;  the  problem  is  how 
such  a  being  ever  comes  to  think  or  speak  of  any- 
thing not  finite,  but  infinite.  It  is  his  senses 
which  give  him  the  first  impression  of  infinite  things 
and  force  him  to  the  admission  of  the  Infinite. 
Everything  of  which  his  senses  cannot  perceive 
a  limit  is  to  a  primitive  savage,  or  to  any  man  in  an 
early  stage  of  intellectual  activity,  unlimited  or 
infinite.  Man  sees  to  a  certain  point;  and  there 
his  eyesight  breaks  down.  But  exactly  where 
his  eyesight  breaks  down  there  presses  upon  him, 
whether  he  likes  it  or  not,  the  perception  of  the 
unlimited,  or  infinite.  It  may  be  said  this  is  not 
perception,  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word.  No 
more  it  is,  but  still  less  is  it  mere  reasoning.  In 
perceiving  the  Infinite,  we  neither  count,  nor 
measure,  nor  compare,  nor  name.  We  know  not 
what  it  is,  but  we  know  that  it  is,  and  we  know  it 


92  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

because  we  actually  feel  it  and  are  brought  in 
contact  with  it.  If  it  seems  too  bold  to  say  that 
man  actually  sees  the  invisible  let  us  say  that  he 
suffers  from  the  invisible,  and  this  invisible  is  only 
a  special  name  for  the  Infinite.  The  Infinite, 
therefore,  instead  of  being  merely  a  late  abstraction 
is  really  implied  in  the  earliest  manifestations 
of  our  sensuous  knowledge.  It  was  true  from  the 
very  first,  but  it  was  not  yet  defined  or  named. 
If  the  Infinite  had  not  from  the  very  first  been 
present  in  our  sensuous  perceptions,  such  a  word 
as  infinite  would  be  a  sound  and  nothing  else. 
With  very  finite  perception  there  is  a  concomitant 
perception  or  a  concomitant  sentiment  or  present- 
ment of  the  Infinite;  from  the  very  first  act  of  touch, 
or  hearing,  at  sight,  we  are  brought  in  contact, 
not  only  with  the  visible,  but  also  at  the  same  time 
with  an  invisible  universe.  We  have  in  this  that 
without  which  no  religion  would  have  been  possi- 
ble; we  have  in  that  perception  of  the  Infinite  the 
root  of  the  whole  historical  development  of  re- 
ligion. Hibbert  Lectures. 


No  thought,  no  name  is  ever  entirely  lost. 
When  we  here  in  this  ancient  Abbey,*  which  was 
built  on  the  ruins  of  a  still  more  ancient  Roman 

*  Westminster. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  93 

temple,  seek  for  a  name  for  the  invisible,  the 
Infinite  that  surrounds  us  on  every  side,  the 
unknown,  the  true  Self  of  the  world,  and  the  true 
Self  of  ourselves — we,  too,  feeling  once  more  like 
children,  kneeling  in  a  small  dark  room,  can  hardly 
find  a  better  name  than,  "Our  Father,  which  art 
in  Heaven."  Ibid. 


The  idea  of  the  Infinite,  which  is  at  the  root  of  all 
religious  thought,  is  not  simply  evolved  by  reason 
out  of  nothing,  but  supplied  to  us,  in  its  original 
form,  by  our  senses.  Beyond,  behind,  beneath 
and  within  the  Finite,  the  Infinite  is  always  present 
to  our  senses.  It  presses  upon  us,  it  grows  upon  us 
from  every  side.  What  we  call  finite  in  space  and 
time,  in  form  and  word,  is  nothing  but  a  veil  or 
a  net  which  we  ourselves  have  thrown  over  the 
infinite.  The  Finite  by  itself,  without  the  Infinite, 
is  simply  inconceivable;  as  inconceivable  as  the 
Infinite  without  the  Finite.  As  reason  deals  with 
the  finite  materials,  supplied  to  us  by  our  senses, 
faith,  or  whatever  else  we  like  to  call  it,  deals 
with  the  Infinite  that  underlies  the  Finite.  What 
we  call  sense,  reason,  and  faith,  are  three  functions 
of  one  and  the  same  perceptive  self;  but  without 
sense,  both  reason  and  faith  are  impossible,  at 
least  to  human  beings  like  ourselves.         Ibid. 


94  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

The  ancestors  of  our  race  did  not  only  believe 
in  divine  powers  more  or  less  manifest  to  their 
senses,  in  rivers  and  mountains,  in  the  sky  and  the 
sun,  in  the  thunder  and  rain,  but  their  senses 
likewise  suggested  to  them  two  of  the  most  essential 
elements  of  all  religion,  the  concept  of  the  infinite, 
and  the  concept  of  law  and  order,  as  revealed 
before  them,  the  one  in  the  golden  sea  behind  the 
dawn,  the  other  in  the  daily  path  of  the  sun.  .  .  . 
These  two  concepts  which  sooner  or  later  must  be 
taken  in  and  minded  by  every  human  being,  were 
at  first  no  more  than  an  impulse,  but  their  impulsive 
force  would  not  rest  till  it  had  beaten  into  the 
minds  of  the  fathers  of  our  race  the  deep  and 
indelible  impression  that  "all  is  right,"  and 
filled  them  with  a  hope,  and  more  than  a  hope, 
that  "all  will  be  right."  Ibid. 


The   real   religious   instinct  or   impulse   is   the 
perception  of  the  Infinite.  Ibid. 


All  objects  which  we  perceive  and  afterward 
conceive  and  name  must  be  circumscribed,  must 
have  been  separated  from  their  surroundings, 
must  be  measurable,  and  can  thus  only  become 
perceivable  and  knowable  and  nameable.     .     .     . 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  95 

They  are  therefore  finite  in  their  very  nature. 
.  .  .  If  finiteness  is  a  necessary  characteristic 
of  our  ordinary  knowledge,  it  requires  but  little 
reflection  to  perceive  that  limitation  or  finiteness, 
in  whatever  sense  we  use  it,  always  implies  a 
something  beyond.  We  are  told  that  our  mind  is 
so  constituted,  whether  it  is  our  fault  or  not,  that 
we  cannot  conceive  an  absolute  limit.  Beyond 
every  limit  we  must  always  take  it  for  granted 
that  there  is  something  else.  But  what  is  the 
reason  of  this  ?  The  reason  why  we  cannot  con- 
ceive an  absolute  limit  is  because  we  never  perceive 
an  absolute  limit;  or,  in  other  words,  because  in 
perceiving  the  finite,  we  always  perceive  the  Infinite 
also.  .  .  .  There  is  no  limit  which  has  not 
two  sides,  the  one  turned  toward  us,  the  other 
turned  toward  what  is  beyond;  and  it  is  that 
Beyond  which  from  the  earliest  days  has  formed 
the  only  real  foundation  of  all  that  we  call  tran- 
scendental in  our  perceptual,  as  well  as  in  our 
conceptual,     knowledge.         Gifford  Lectures,  I. 


The  Infinite  was  not  discovered  behind  the  veil 
of  nature  only,  though  its  manifestation  in  physical 
phenomena  was  no  doubt  the  most  primitive  and 
the  most  fertile  source  of  mythological  and  religious 
ideas.     There  were  two  more  manifestations  of  the 


96  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Infinite  and  the  unknown,  which  must  not  be  neg- 
lected, if  we  wish  to  gain  a  complete  insight  into 
the  theogonic  process  through  which  the  human 
mind  had  to  pass  from  its  earliest  days.  The 
Infinite  disclosed  itself  not  only  in  nature  but  like- 
wise in  man,  looked,  upon  as  an  object,  and  lastly 
in  man  looked  upon  as  a  subject.  Man  looked 
upon  as  an  object,  as  a  living  thing,  was  felt  to  be 
more  than  a  mere  part  of  nature.  There  was 
something  in  man,  whether  it  was  called  breath  or 
spirit  or  soul  or  mind,  which  was  perceived  and 
yet  not  perceived,  which  was  behind  the  veil  of 
the  body,  and  from  a  very  early  time  was  believed 
to  remain  free  from  decay,  even  when  illness  and 
death  had  destroyed  the  body  in  which  it  seemed 
to  dwell.  There  was  nothing  to  force  even  the 
simplest  peasant  to  believe  that  because  he  saw 
his  father  dead,  and  his  body  decaying,  therefore 
what  was  known  as  the  man  himself,  call  it  his 
soul  or  his  mind,  or  his  person,  had  vanished 
altogether  out  of  existence.  A  philosopher  may 
arrive  at  such  an  idea,  but  a  man  of  ordinary 
understanding,  though  terrified  by  the  aspect  of 
death,  would  rather  be  inclined  to  believe  that 
what  he  had  known  and  loved  and  called  his 
father  or  mother,  must  be  somewhere,  though  no 
longer  in  the  body.  ...  It  is  perhaps  too 
much  to  say  that  such  a  belief  was  universal;  but 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


97 


it  certainly  was  and  is  still  very  widely  spread. 
In  fact  it  constitutes  a  very  large  portion  of 
religion,  and  religious  worship.  Ibid. 


Nature,  Man,  and  Self  are  the  three  great 
manifestations  in  which  the  Infinite  in  some  shape 
or  other  has  been  perceived,  and  every  one  of 
these  perceptions  has  in  its  historical  development 
contributed  to  what  may  be  called  religion. 

Ibid. 

Like  all  other  experiences,  our  religious  experi- 
ence begins  with  the  senses.  Though  the  senses 
seem  to  deliver  to  us  finite  experiences  only,  many 
if  not  all,  of  them  can  be  shown  to  involve  some- 
thing beyond  the  known,  something  unknown, 
something  which  I  claim  the  liberty  to  call  infinite. 
In  this  way  the  human  mind  was  led  to  the  recogni- 
tion of  undefined,  infinite  agents  or  agencies 
beyond,  behind,  and  within  our  finite  experience. 
The  feelings  of  fear,  awe,  reverence,  and  love 
excited  by  the  manifestations  of  some  of  these 
agents  or  powers  began  to  react  on  the  human 
mind,  and  thus  produced  what  we  call 
Natural  Religion  in  its  lowest  and  simplest 
form — fear,  awe,  reverence,  and  love  of  the 
gods.  Ibid. 


98  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

The  perception  of  the  Infinite  can  be  shown  by 
historical  evidence  to  be  the  one  element  shared 
in  common  by  all  religions.  Only  we  must  not 
forget  that,  like  every  other  concept,  that  of  the 
Infinite  also  had  to  pass  through  many  phases  in 
its  historical  evolution,  beginning  with  the  simple 
negation  of  what  is  finite,  and  the  assertion  of  an 
invisible  Beyond,  and  leading  up  to  a  perceptive 
belief  in  that  most  real  Infinite  in  which  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being. 

Gi fjord  Lectures y  IV. 


KNOWLEDGE 

The  lesson  that  there  are  limits  to  our  knowledge 
is  an  old  lesson,  but  it  has  to  be  taught  again  and 
again.  It  was  taught  by  Buddha,  it  was  taught 
by  Socrates,  and  it  was  taught  for  the  last  time  in 
the  most  powerful  manner  by  Kant.  Philosophy 
has  been  called  the  knowledge  of  our  knowledge; 
it  might  be  called  more  truly  the  knowledge  of  our 
ignorance,  or,  to  adopt  the  more  moderate  language 
of  Kant,  the  knowledge  of  the  limits  of  our  knowl- 
edge. Last  Essays. 


Metaphysical  truth  is  wider  than  physical  truth, 
and  the  new  discoveries  of  physical  observers,  if 
they  are  to  be  more  than  merely  contingent  truths, 
must  find  their  appointed  place  and  natural  refuge 
within  the  immovable  limits  traced  by  the 
metaphysician.  .  .  .  It  is  only  after  having 
mastered  the  principles  of  metaphysics  that  the 
student  of  nature  can  begin  his  work  in  the  right 
spirit,  knowing  the  horizon  of  human  knowledge, 
and  guided  by  principles  as  unchangeable  as  the 
pole  star.  Ibid. 

99 


ioo  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

There  is  no  subject  in  the  whole  realm  of  human 
knowledge  that  cannot  be  rendered  clear  and  in- 
telligible, if  we  ourselves  have  perfectly  mastered  it. 
Chips  from  a  German  Workshop, 

The  bridge  of  thoughts  and  sighs  that  spans  the 
whole  history  of  the  Aryan  world  has  its  first 
arch  in  the  Veda,  its  last  in  Kant's  "Critique  of 
Pure  Reason. "  In  the  Veda  we  watch  the 
first  unfolding  of  the  human  mind  as  we  can  watch 
it  nowhere  else.  Life  seems  simple,  natural, 
childlike.  .  .  .  What  is  beneath,  and  above, 
and  beyond  this  life  is  dimly  perceived,  and 
expressed  in  a  thousand  words  and  ways,  all 
mere  stammerings,  all  aiming  to  express  what 
cannot  be  expressed,  yet  all  full  of  a  belief  in  the 
real  presence  of  the  Divine  in  Nature,  of  the 
Infinite  in  the  Finite.  .  .  .  While  in  the 
Veda  we  may  study  the  childhood,  we  may  study 
in  Kant's  "Critique"  the  perfect  manhood  of  the 
Aryan  mind.  It  has  passed  through  many  phases, 
and  every  one  of  them  .  .  .  has  left  its 
mark.  It  is  no  longer  dogmatical,  no  longer 
sceptical,  least  of  all  is  it  positive.  ...  It 
stands  before  us  conscious  of  its  weakness  and  its 
strength,  modest  yet  brave.  It  knows  what  the 
old  idols  of  its  childhood  and  youth  were  made  of. 
It  does  not  break  them,  it  only  tries  to  understand 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  101 

them,  but  it  places  above  them  the  Ideals  of 
Reason— no  longer  tangible— not  even  within  the 
reach  of  the  understanding— but  real— bright  and 
heavenly  stars  to  guide  us  even  in  the  darkest  night. 
Translation  of  Kant's  "  Critique  of  Pure  Reason." 

All  knowledge,  in  order  to  be  knowledge,  must 
pass  through  two  gates,  and  two  gates  only;  the 
gate  of  the  senses,  and  the  gate  of  reason.  Relig- 
ious knowledge  also,  whether  true  or  false,  must 
have  passed  through  these  two  gates.  At  these 
two  gates  therefore  we  take  our  stand.  Whatever 
claims  to  have  entered  in  by  any  other  gate, 
whether  that  gate  is  called  primeval  revelation  or 
religious  instinct,  must  be  rejected  as  contraband 
of  thought;  and  whatever  claims  to  have  entered 
by  the  gate  of  reason,  without  having  first  passed 
through  the  gate  of  the  senses,  must  equally  be 
rejected,  as  without  sufficient  warrant,  or  ordered 
at  least  to  go  back  to  the  first  gate,  in  order  to 
produce    there    its    full    credentials. 

Hibbert  Lectures. 


LANGUAGE 

The  history  of  language  opens  a  vista  which 
makes  one  feel  almost  giddy  if  one  tries  to  see  the 
end  of  it,  but  the  measuring  rod  of  the  chronologist 
seems  to  me  entirely  out  of  place.  Those  who 
have  eyes  to  see  will  see  the  immeasurable 
distance  between  the  first  historical  appearance 
of  language  and  the  real  beginnings  of  human 
speech;  those  who  cannot  see  will  oscillate 
between  the  wildly  large  figures  of  the 
Buddhists,  or  the  wildly  small  figures  of  the 
Rabbis,  but  they  will  never  lay  hold  ofwhatbyits 
very  nature  is  indefinite.  Life. 


By  no  effort  of  the  understanding,  by  no  stretch 
of  imagination,  can  I  explain  to  myself  how  lan- 
guage could  have  grown  out  of  anything  which 
animals  possess,  even  if  we  granted  them  millions 
of  years  for  that  purpose.  If  anything  has  a  right 
to  the  name  of  specific  difference,  it  is  language,  as 
we  find  it  in  man,  and  in  man  only.  Even  if  we 
removed  the  name  of  specific  difference  from  our 
philosophic  dictionaries,   I  should  still  hold  that 

102 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  103 

nothing  deserves  the  name  of  man  except  what  is 
able  to  speak.  Science  of  Thought. 


Every  language  has  to  be  learned,  but  who  made 
the  language  that  was  to  be  learned  ?  It  matters 
little  whether  we  call  language  an  instinct,  a  gift,  a 
talent,  a  faculty,  or  the  proprium  of  man;  certain 
it  is  that  neither  language,  nor  the  power 
of  language,  nor  the  conditions  under  which 
alone  language  can  exist,  are  to  be  discovered 
anywhere  in  the  whole  animal  kingdom,  except 
in  man.  Ibid. 


It  was  Christianity  which  first  broke  down  the 
barrier  between  Jew  and  Gentile,  between  Greek 
and  Barbarian,  between  the  white  and  the  black. 
Humanity  is  a  word  which  you  look  for  in  vain  in 
Plato  and  Aristotle;  the  idea  of  mankind  as  one 
family,  as  the  children  of  one  God,  is  an  idea  of 
Christian  growth;  and  the  science  of  mankind, 
and  of  the  languages  of  mankind,  is  a  science  which, 
without  Christianity,  would  never  have  sprung 
into  life.  When  people  had  been  taught  to  look 
upon  all  men  as  brethren,  then,  and  then  only,  did 
the  variety  of  human  speech  present  itself  as  a 
problem  that  called  for  a  solution  in  the  eyes  of 


io4  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

thoughtful  observers;  and  from  an  historical  point 
of  view  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  first  day 
of  Pentecost  marks  the  real  beginning  of  the  science 
of  language.  Science  of  Language. 


And  now,  if  we  gaze  from  our  native  shores  over 
the  vast  ocean  of  human  speech,  with  its  waves 
rolling  on  from  continent  to  continent,  rising  under 
the  fresh  breezes  of  the  morning  of  history,  and 
slowly  heaving  in  our  own  more  sultry  atmosphere, 
with  sails  gliding  over  its  surface,  and  many  an 
oar  ploughing  through  its  surf,  and  the  flags  of  all 
nations  waving  joyously  together,  with  its  rocks 
and  wrecks,  its  storms  and  battles,  yet  reflecting 
serenely  all  that  is  beneath  and  above  and  around 
it;  if  we  gaze  and  hearken  to  the  strange  sounds 
rushing  past  our  ears  in  unbroken  strains,  it  seems 
no  longer  a  wile'  tumult,  but  we  feel  as  if  placed 
within  some  ancient  cathedral,  listening  to  a  chorus 
of  innumerable  voices:  and  the  more  intensely  we 
listen,  the  more  all  discords  melt  away  into  higher 
harmonies,  till  at  last  we  hear  but  one  majestic  tri- 
chord, or  a  mighty  unison,  as  at  the  end  of  a  sacred 
symphony.  Such  visions  will  float  through  the  study 
of  the  grammarian,  and  in  the  midst  of  toilsome 
researches  his  heart  will  suddenly  beat,  as  he  feels 
the  conviction  growing  upon  him  that  men  are 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  105 

brethren  in  the  simplest  sense  of  the  word — the 
children  of  the  same  Father — whatever  their  coun- 
try, their  language,  and  their  faith. 

Buns  en  s  "Philosophy  of Universal  History ,"  /. 


LIFE 

All  really  great  and  honest  men  may  be  said  to 
live  three  lives:  there  is  one  life  which  is  seen  and 
accepted  by  the  world  at  large,  a  man's  outward 
life;  there  is  a  second  life  which  is  seen  by  a  man's 
most  intimate  friends,  his  household  life;  and  there 
is  a  third  life,  seen  only  by  the  man  himself,  and 
by  Him  who  searcheth  the  heart,  which  may  be 
called  the  inner  or  heavenly — a  life  led  in  com- 
munion with  God,  a  life  of  aspiration  rather  than  of 
fulfilment.  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 


Where  Plato  could  only  see  imperfections,  the 
failures  of  the  founders  of  human  speech,  we  see, 
as  everywhere  else  in  human  life,  a  natural  prog- 
ress from  the  imperfect  toward  the  perfect,  unceas- 
ing attempts  at  realising  the  ideal,  and  the  frequent 
triumphs  of  the  human  mind  over  the  inevitable 
difficulties  of  this  earthly  condition — difficulties 
not  of  man's  own  making,  but,  as  I  firmly  believe, 
prepared  for  him,  and  not  without  a  purpose,  as 
toils  and  tasks,  by  a  higher  Power,  and  by  the 
highest  Wisdom,  Ibid. 

io6 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  107 

Our  life  is  not  completely  in  our  hands — we 
must  submit  to  many  things  which  we  may  smile 
at  in  our  inmost  heart,  but  which  nevertheless  are 
essential,  not  only  to  our  happiness,  but  to  our  ful- 
filling the  duties  which  we  are  called  to  fulfil.  We 
ought  to  look  upon  the  circumstances  in  which  we 
are  born  and  brought  up  as  ordained  by  a  Higher 
Power,  and  we  must  learn  to  walk  the  path  which 
is  pointed  out  to  us!  Life. 


It  is  difficult  to  be  always  true  to  ourselves,  to 
be  always  what  we  wish  to  be,  what  we  feel  we 
ought  to  be.  As  long  as  we  feel  that,  as  long  as  we 
do  not  surrender  the  ideal  of  our  life,  all  is  right. 
Our  aspirations  represent  the  true  nature  of  our 
soul  much  more  than  our  everyday  life.  I  feel  as 
much  as  you,  how  far  I  have  been  left  behind  in 
the  race  which  I  meant  to  run,  but  I  honestly 
try  to  rouse  myself,  and  to  live  up  to  what 
I  feel  I  ought  to  be.  Let  us  keep  up  our 
constant  fight  against  all  that  is  small  and 
common  and  selfish,  let  us  never  lose  our  faith 
in  the  ideal  life,  in  what  we  ought  to  be,  and 
in  what  with  constant  prayer  to  God  we  shall 
be,  and  let  us  never  forget  how  unworthy  we 
are  of  all  the  blessings  God  has  showered  down 
upon  us.  Ibid. 


108  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

I  feel  quite  thankful  for  any  little  misfortune; 
it  is  like  paying  something  of  the  large  debt  of  hap- 
piness we  owe,  though  it  is  but  a  very  trifling  inter- 
est, and  the  capital  we  must  owe  forever.       MS. 


I  thought  a  long  time  about  my  happiness,  and 
my  unworthiness,  and  God's  unbounded  mercy. 
And  then  I  heard  the  words  within  me:  "Be  not 
afraid."  Yes,  there  must  be  no  fear.  Where  there 
is  fear,  there  is  no  perfect  love.  Our  happiness 
here  is  but  a  foretaste  of  our  blessed  life  hereafter. 
We  must  never  forget  that.  We  shall  be  called 
away,  but  we  shall  meet  again.  MS. 


I  begin  to  be  quite  thankful  for  my  disappoint- 
ment— we  all  want  winding  up,  and  nothing  does 
it  so  well  as  a  great  disappointment,  if  we  only  see 
clearly  Who  sent  it  and  then  forget  everything  else. 

MS. 

One  sometimes  forgets  that  all  this  is  only  the 
preparation  for  what  is  to  come  hereafter.  Yet 
we  should  never  forget  this,  otherwise  this  life  loses 
its  true  meaning  and  purpose.  If  we  only  know 
what  we  live  for  here,  we  can  easily  find  out  what 
is  worth  having  in  this  life,  and  what  is  not;   we 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  109 

can  easily  go  on  without  many  things  which  others, 
whose  eyes  are  fixed  on  this  world  only,  consider 
essential  to  their  happiness.  MS. 


The  spirit  of  love,  and  the  spirit  of  truth,  are 
the  two  life  springs  of  our  whole  being — or,  what  is 
the  same,  of  our  whole  religion.  If  we  lose  that 
bond,  which  holds  us  and  binds  us  to  a  higher 
world,  our  life  becomes  purposeless,  joyless;  if  it 
holds  us  and  supports,  life  becomes  perfect,  all 
little  cares  vanish,  and  we  feel  we  are  working  out 
a  great  purpose,  as  well  as  we  can,  a  purpose  not 
our  own,  not  selfish,  not  self-seeking,  but,  in  the 
truest  sense  of  the  word,  God  serving  and  God 
seeking.  .  .  .  Gentleness  is  a  kind  of  mixture 
of  love  and  truthfulness,  and  it  should  be  the 
highest  object  of  our  life  to  attain  more  and  more 
to  that  true  gentleness  which  throws  such  a  charm 
over  all  our  life.  There  is  a  gentleness  of  voice, 
of  look,  of  movement,  of  speech,  all  of  which  are 
but  the  expressions  of  true  gentleness  of  heart. 

MS. 

It  is  impossible  to  take  too  high  a  view  of  life; 
the  very  highest  we  take  is  still  too  low.  One  feels 
that  more  and  more  as  our  life  draws  to  its  close, 
and  many  things  that  seemed  important  once  are 


no  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

seen  to  be  of  no  consequence,  while  only  a  few 
things  remain  which  will  tell  forever.  MS. 


I  don't  believe  in  what  is  called  worldly 
wisdom.  I  do  not  think  the  world  was  made 
for  it — with  real  faith  in  a  higher  life  I  believe 
one  can  pass  through  this  life  without  let  or 
hindrance.  What  I  dread  are  compromises. 
There  are  false  notes  in  them  always,  and  a 
false  note  goes  on  forever.  MS. 


How  thankful  we  ought  to  be  every  minute  of 
our  existence  to  Him  who  gives  us  all  richly  to 
enjoy.  How  little  one  has  deserved  this  happy 
life,  much  less  than  many  poor  sufferers  to  whom 
life  is  a  burden  and  a  hard  and  bitter  trial.  But 
then,  how  much  greater  the  claims  on  us;  how 
much  more  sacred  the  duty  never  to  trifle,  never  to 
waste  time  and  power,  never  to  compromise,  but 
to  live  in  all  things,  small  and  great,  to  the  praise 
and  glory  of  God,  to  have  God  always  present  with 
us,  and  to  be  ready  to  follow  His  voice,  and  His 
voice  only.  Has  our  prosperity  taught  us  to  meet 
adversity  when  it  comes  ?  I  often  tremble,  but 
then  I  commit  all  to  God,  and  I  say,  "Have  mercy 
upon  me,  a  miserable  sinner."  Life. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  in 

There  is  something  very  awful  in  this  life, 
and  it  is  not  right  to  try  to  forget  it.  It  is 
well  to  be  reminded  by  the  trials  of  others  of 
what  may  befall  us,  and  what  is  kept  from  us 
only  by  the  love  of  our  Father  in  Heaven,  not  by 
any  merit  of  our  own.  MS. 


How  different  life  is  to  what  one  thought  it  when 
young,  how  all  around  us  falls  together,  till  we 
ourselves  fall  together.  How  meaningless  and 
vain  everything  seems  on  earth,  and  how  closely 
the  reality  of  the  life  beyond  approaches  us.  Many 
days  were  beautiful  here,  but  the  greater  the  hap- 
piness the  more  bitter  the  thought  that  it  all  passes 
away,  that  nothing  remains  of  earthly  happiness, 
but  a  grateful  heart  and  faith  in  God  who  knows 
best  what  is  best  for  us.  MS. 


Oh!  if  we  could  even  in  this  life  forget  all  that  is 
unessential,  all  that  makes  it  so  hard  for  us  to  recog- 
nise true  greatness  and  goodness  in  the  character 
of  those  with  whom  this  life  brings  us  in  contact 
for  a  little  while!  How  much  we  lose  by  making 
little  things  so  important,  and  how  rarely  do  we 
think  highly  enough  of  what  is  essential  and  lasting! 

MS. 


ii2  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

You  must  accustom  yourself  more  and  more  to 
the  thought  that  here  is  not  our  abiding  city,  that  all 
that  we  call  ours  here  is  only  lent,  not  given  us, 
and  that  if  the  sorrow  for  those  we  have  lost  remains 
the  same,  we  must  yet  acknowledge  with  gratitude 
to  God  the  great  blessing  of  having  enjoyed  so 
many  years  with  those  whom  He  gave  us,  as 
parents,  or  children,  or  friends.  One  forgets  so 
easily  the  happy  years  one  has  had  with  those  who 
were  the  nearest  to  us.  Even  these  years  of  hap- 
piness, however  short  they  may  have  been,  were 
only  given  us;  we  had  not  deserved  them.  I  know 
well  there  is  no  comfort  for  this  pain  of  parting: 
the  wound  always  remains,  but  one  learns  to  bear 
the  pain,  and  learns  to  thank  God  for  what  He 
gave,  for  the  beautiful  memories  of  the  past,  and 
the  yet  more  beautiful  hope  for  the  future.  If  a 
man  has  lent  us  anything  for  several  years,  and  at 
last  takes  it  back,  he  expects  gratitude,  not  anger, 
and  if  God  has  more  patience  with  our  weakness 
than  men  have,  yet  murmurs  and  complaints  for 
the  life  which  He  measured  out  for  us  as  is 
best  for  us  are  not  what  He  expected  from 
us.  A  spirit  of  resignation  to  God's  will  is 
our  only  comfort,  the  only  relief  under  the  trials 
God  lays  upon  us,  and  with  such  a  spirit  the 
heaviest  as  well  as  the  lightest  trials  of  life 
are  not  only  bearable,  but  useful,  and  gratitude 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  113 

to    God,    and    joy    in    life    and    death    remain 
untroubled.  Life. 


By  a  grave  one  learns  what  life  really  is — that  it 
is  not  here  but  elsewhere — that  this  is  the  exile  and 
there  is  our  home.  As  we  grow  older  the  train  of 
life  goes  faster  and  faster,  those  with  whom  we 
travelled  together  step  out  from  station  to  station, 
and  our  own  station  too  will  soon  be  marked. 

MS. 

It  seems  to  me  so  ungrateful  to  allow  one  moment 
to  pass  that  is  not  full  of  joy  and  happiness,  and 
devotion  to  Him  who  gives  us  all  this  richly  to 
enjoy.  The  clouds  will  come,  they  must  come, 
but  they  ought  never  to  be  of  our  own  making. 

Life. 

The  shadows  fall  thicker  and  thicker,  but  even 
in  the  shade  it  is  well,  often  better  than  in  full  sun- 
shine. And  when  the  evening  comes,  one  is  tired, 
and  ready  to  sleep!  And  so  all  is  ordered  for  us, 
if  we  only  accommodate  ourselves  to  it  quietly. 

Ibid. 

As  long  as  God  wills  it  we  must  learn  to  bear  this 
life,  but  when  He  calls  us  we  willingly  close  our 


ii4 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


eyes,  for  we  know  it  is  better  for  us  there  than  here. 
When  so  many  whom  we  loved  are  gone  before  us, 
we  follow  gladly;  and  the  older  we  become  here, 
the  more  one  feels  that  death  is  a  relief.  And  yet  we 
can  thankfully  enjoy  what  is  still  left  us  on  earth, 
even  if  our  hearts  no  longer  cling  to  it  as  formerly. 

Ibid. 

Our  life  here  is  not  our  own  work,  and  we  know 
that  it  is  best  for  us  all  just  as  it  is.  We  ought  to 
bear  it,  and  we  must  bear  it;  and  the  more  patiently, 
yes,  the  more  joyfully,  we  accommodate  ourselves 
to  it,  the  better  for  us.  We  must  take  life  as  it  is, 
as  the  way  appointed  for  us,  and  that  must  lead 
to  a  certain  goal.  Some  go  sooner,  some  later, 
but  we  all  go  the  same  way,  and  all  find  the  same 
place  of  rest.  Impatience,  gloom,  murmurs  and 
tears  do  not  help  us,  do  not  alter  anything  and 
make  the  road  longer,  not  shorter.  Quiet,  resigna- 
tion, thankfulness  and  faith  help  us  forward,  and 
alone  make  it  possible  to  perform  the  duties  which 
we  all,  each  in  his  own  sphere,  have  to  fulfil.  .  .  . 
The  darker  the  night,  the  clearer  the  stars  in 
heaven.  Ibid. 


How   different   life   might   be,    if  in   our   daily 
intercourse  and  conversation  we  thought  of  our 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  115 

friends  as  lying  before  us  on  the  last  bed  of  flowers 
— how  differently  we  should  then  judge,  and  how 
differently  we  should  act.  All  that  is  of  the  earth 
is  then  forgotten,  all  the  little  failings  inherent  in 
human  nature  vanish  from  our  minds,  and  we 
only  see  what  was  good,  unselfish  and  loving  in 
that  soul,  and  we  think  with  regret  of  how  much 
more  we  might  have  done  to  requite  that  love.  It 
is  curious  how  forgetful  we  are  of  death,  how  little 
we  think  that  we  are  dying  daily,  and  that  what 
we  call  life  is  really  death,  and  death  the  beginning 
of  a  higher  life.  Such  a  thought  should  not  make 
our  life  less  bright,  but  rather  more — it  should 
make  us  feel  how  unimportant  many  things  are 
which  we  consider  all-important:  how  much  we 
could  bear  which  we  think  unbearable,  if  only  we 
thought  that  to-morrow  we  ourselves  or  our 
friends  may  be  taken  away,  at  least  for  a  time. 
You  should  think  of  death,  should  feel  that  what 
you  call  your  own  is  only  lent  to  you,  and  that  all 
that  remains  as  a  real  comfort  is  the  good  work 
done  in  this  short  journey,  the  true  unselfish  love 
shewn  to  those  whom  God  has  given  us,  has 
placed  near  to  us,  not  without  a  high  purpose. 

Ibid. 

What  a  marvel  life  seems  to  be  the  older  we 
grow!     So  far  from  becoming  more  intelligible,  it 


u6  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

becomes  a  greater  wonder  every  day.  One 
stands  amazed,  and  everything  seems  so  small — 
the  little  one  can  do  so  very  small.  One  ought 
not  to  brood  too  much,  when  there  is  no  chance  of 
light,  and  yet  how  natural  it  is  that  one  should 
brood  over  life  and  death,  rather  than  on  the  little 
things  of  life.  Ibid. 


If  we  only  hold  fast  the  belief  that  nothing 
happens  but  by  the  will  of  God,  we  learn  to  be 
still  and  can  bear  everything.  The  older  one 
grows,  the  more  one  feels  sure  that  life  here  is  but 
a  long  imprisonment,  and  one  longs  for  freedom 
and  higher  efforts.  .  .  .  How  small  and  in- 
significant is  all  in  this  life  when  we  rise  our  eyes 
above.  Gazing  up  to  the  Lord  of  the  Universe, 
all  strife  is  made  easy.  We  speak  different  tongues 
when  we  think  of  the  Highest,  but  we  all  mean 
the  same  thing.  MS. 


It  is  sad  to  think  of  all  that  was  and  is  no  more, 
and  yet  there  is  something  much  more  real  in 
memory  than  one  used  to  think.  All  is  there  but 
what  our  weak  human  senses  require,  and  nothing 
is  lost,  nothing  can  be  lost  except  what  we  know 
would  vanish  one  day,  but  what  was  the  husk  only, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  117 

not  the  kernel.  I  have  learned  to  live  with  those 
who  went  before  us,  and  they  seem  more  entirely 
our  own  than  when  they  were  with  us  in  the  body. 
And  as  long  as  we  have  duties  to  fulfil,  so  long  as 
there  are  others  who  lean  on  us  and  want  us,  life 
can  be  lived  a  few  years  longer;  it  can  only  be  a 
few  years.  MS. 


Life  is  earnest!  is  a  very  old  lesson,  and  we  are 
never  too  old  to  learn  it.  "Life  is  an  art,"  is 
Goethe's  doctrine,  and  there  is  some  truth  in  it 
also,  as  long  as  art  does  not  imply  artful  or  artificial. 
Huxley  used  to  say  the  highest  end  of  life  is  action, 
not  knowledge.  There  I  quite  differ.  First  knowl- 
edge, then  action,  and  what  a  lottery  action  is!  The 
best  intentions  often  fail,  and  what  is  done  to-day 
is  undone  to-morrow.  However,  we  must  toil  on  and 
do  what  every  day  brings  us,  and  do  it  as  well  as 
we  can,  and  better,  if  possible,  than  anybody  else. 

Life. 

What  can  we  call  ours  if  God  did  not  vouchsafe 
it  to  us  from  day  to  day  ?  Yet  it  is  so  difficult  to 
give  oneself  up  entirely  to  Him,  to  trust  everything 
to  His  Love  and  Wisdom.  I  thought  I  could 
say,  "Thy  Will  be  done,"  but  I  found  I  could  not: 
my  own  will  struggled  against  His  Will.     I  prayed 


n8  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

as  we  ought  not  to  pray,  and  yet  He  heard  me.  It 
is  so  difficult  not  to  grow  very  fond  of  this  life  and 
all  its  happiness,  but  the  more  we  love  it,  the  more 
we  suffer,  for  we  know  we  must  lose  it  and  it  must 
all  pass  away.  MS. 


Our  idea  of  life  grows  larger,  and  birth  and 
death  seem  but  like  morning  and  evening.  One 
feels  that  as  it  has  been  so  it  will  be  again,  and  all 
one  can  do  is  to  try  to  make  the  best  of  every  day, 
as  it  comes  and  goes.  Life. 


The  things  that  annoy  us  in  life  are  after  all 
very  trifling  things,  if  we  always  bear  in  mind 
for  what  purpose  we  are  here.  And  even  in  the 
heavier  trials,  one  knows,  or  one  should  know,  that 
all  is  sent  by  a  higher  power,  and  in  the  end  must  be 
for  our  best  interests.  It  is  true  we  cannot  under- 
stand it,  but  we  can  understand  that  God  rules  in 
the  world  in  the  smallest  and  in  the  largest  events, 
and  he  who  keeps  that  ever  in  mind  has  the  peace 
of  God,  and  enjoys  his  life  as  long  as  it  lasts. 

Ibid. 

Life  may  grow  more  strange  and  awful  every 
day,  but  the  more  strange  and  awful  it  grows,  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  n9 

more  it  reveals  to  us  its  truest  meaning  and  reality, 
and  the  deepest  depth  of  its  divinity.  "And  God 
saw  everything  that  He  had  made,  and  behold, 
it  was  very  good."  [hid. 


Enjoy  the  precious  years  God  has  added  to  your 
life,  with  constant  gratitude,  with  quiet  and  purity  of 
soul,  looking  more  to  theheavenly  than  to  theearthly; 
that  gives  true  joyfulness  of  soul,  if  we  every  moment 
recollect  what  is  eternal,  and  never  quite  lose  our- 
selves in  the  small,  or  even  the  large  cares  of  life. 

Ibid. 

If  we  live  on  this  earth  only,  if  our  thoughts  are 
hemmed  in  by  the  narrow  horizon  of  this  life,  then 
we  lose  indeed  those  whom  death  takes  from  us. 
But  it  is  death  itself  which  teaches  us  that  there 
is  a  Beyond,  we  are  lifted  up  and  see  a  new  world, 
far  beyond  what  we  had  seen  before.  In  that 
wide  world  we  lead  a  new  and  larger  life,  a  life 
which  includes  those  we  no  longer  see  on  earth, 
but  whom  we  cannot  surrender.  The  old  Indian 
philosophers  say  that  no  one  can  find  the  truth 
whose  heart  is  attached  to  his  wife  and  children. 
No  doubt  perfect  freedom  from  all  affections  would 
make  life  and  death  very  easy.  But  may  not  the 
very  love  which  we  feel  for  those  who  belong  to  us, 


120 


LIFE  AND  REUGION 


even  when  they  are  taken  from  us,  bring  light  to 
our  eyes,  and  make  us  see  the  truth  that,  by  that 
very  love,  we  belong  to  another  world,  and  that 
from  that  world,  however  little  we  can  here  know 
about  it,  love  will  not  be  excluded.  We  believe  what 
we  desire — true — but  why  do  we  desire  ?  Let  us  be 
ourselves,  let  us  be  what  we  were  meant  to  be  on 
earth,  and  trust  to  Him  who  made  us  what  we  are. 

M.S'. 

Yes,  every  day  adds  a  new  thin  layer  ot  new 
thoughts,  and  these  layers  form  the  texture  of  our 
character.  The  materials  come  floating  toward 
us,  but  the  way  in  which  they  settle  down  depends 
much  on  the  ebb  and  flow  within  us.  We  can  do 
much  to  keep  off  foreign  elements,  and  to  attach 
and  retain  those  which  serve  best  in  building  up  a 
strong  rock.  But  from  time  to  time  a  great  sorrow 
breaks  through  all  the  strata  of  our  soul — all  is 
upheaved,  shattered,  distorted.  In  nature  all  that  is 
grand  dates  from  such  convulsions — why  should  we 
wish  for  a  new  smooth  surface,  or  let  our  sorrows 
be  covered  by  the  flat  sediment  of  everyday  life  ? 

MS. 

If  we  feel  that  this  life  can  only  be  a  link  in  a 
chain  without  beginning  and  without  end,  in  a 
circle  which  has  its  beginning  and  its  end  every- 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  121 

where  and  nowhere,  we  learn  to  bear  it,  and  to 
enjoy  it  too,  in  a  new  sense.  What  we  achieve 
here  assumes  a  new  meaning — it  will  not  altogether 
perish,  whether  for  good  or  for  evil.  What  is 
done  in  time  is  done  forever — what  is  done  by  one 
affects  us  all.  Thus  our  love  too  is  not  lost — 
what  is  loved  in  time  is  loved  forever.  The 
form  changes,  but  that  which  changes,  which 
undergoes  change,  remains  itself  unchanged.  We 
seem  to  love  the  fleeting  forms  of  life — and  yet  how 
can  we  truly  love  what  is  so  faithless  ?  No,  we 
truly  love  what  is,  and  was,  and  will  be,  hidden 
under  the  fleeting  forms  of  life,  but  in  itself  more 
than  those  fleeting  forms,  however  fair.  We  love 
the  fair  appearance  too — how  could  it  be  otherwise? 
But  we  should  love  them  only  as  belonging  to 
what  we  love — not  as  being  what  we  love.  So  it 
is,  or,  rather,  so  it  ought  to  be.  Yet  while  we  are 
what  we  are,  we  love  the  flower,  not  the  sightless 
grain  of  seed,  and  when  that  flower  fades  and 
passes  away,  we  mourn  for  it,  and  our  only  comfort 
is  that  we  too  fade  and  pass  away.  Then  we 
follow  there,  wherever  they  go.  Some  flowers 
fade  sooner,  some  later,  but  none  is  quite  forgotten. 

MS. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  at  what  moment  in 
our  young  lives  real  responsibility  begins.    The  law 


122  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

fixes  a  time,  our  own  heart  cannot  do  that.  Yet 
in  spite  of  this  unknown  quantity  at  the  beginning, 
we  begin  afterward  to  reckon  with  ourselves. 
Why  should  we  protest  against  a  similar  unknown 
quantity  before  the  beginning  of  our  life  on  earth  ? 
Wherever  and  whenever  it  was,  we  feel  that  we 
have  made  ourselves  what  we  are.  Is  not  that  a 
useful  article  of  faith  ?  Does  it  not  help  us  to 
decide  on  undoing  what  we  have  done  wrong  and 
in  doing  all  the  good  we  can,  even  if  it  does  not 
bear  fruit,  within  or  without,  in  this  life  ?  A 
break  of  consciousness  does  not  seem  incompatible 
with  a  sense  of  responsibility,  if  we  know  by 
reasoning  though  not  by  recollection  that  what  we 
see  done  in  ourselves  must  have  been  done  by 
ourselves.  And  even  if  we  waive  the  question  of 
responsibility  for  the  first  two  or  three  years  of  our 
life  on  earth,  surely  we  existed  during  those 
years  though  we  do  not  recollect  it — then  why  not 
before  our  life  on  earth  ?  MS. 


We  must  learn  to  live  two  lives — this  short  life 
here  on  earth  with  its  joys  and  sorrows,  and  that 
true  life  beyond,  of  which  this  is  only  a  fragment, 
or  an  interruption.  When  we  enter  into  that  true 
life,  we  shall  find  what  we  cannot  find  here,  we 
shall  find  what  we  have  lost  here.     If  only  so  many 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  123 

things  did  not  seem  so  irregular,  so  unnatural. 
The  death  of  young  children  before  their  parents. 
We  love  them  better  because  we  know  we  can 
lose  them — that  is  true — but  yet  it  is  a  hard 
lesson  to  learn.  MS. 


One  month  will  go  after  another,  till  at  last  this 
journey  is  over,  and  we  look  back  on  it  grateful 
for  the  many  pleasures  it  has  given  us,  grateful  for 
the  company  of  so  many  kind  friends  whom  we 
met,  grateful  also  for  the  struggles  which  we  had 
to  go  through  and  which  will  appear  so  small,  and 
so  little  worth  our  tears  and  anguish,  when  all  is 
over  and  the  last  station  and  resting  place  reached 
in  safety.  MS. 


LOVE 

I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  souls  toward 
whom  we  feel  drawn  in  this  life  are  the  very 
souls  whom  we  knew  and  loved  in  a  former 
life,  and  that  the  souls  who  repel  us  here, 
we  do  not  know  why,  are  the  souls  that 
earned  our  disapproval,  the  souls  from  whom 
we  kept  aloof,  in  a  former  life.  But  let  us 
remember  that  if  our  love  is  the  love  of  what 
is  merely  phenomenal,  the  love  of  the  body, 
the  kindness  of  the  heart,  the  vigour  and 
wisdom  of  the  intellect,  our  love  is  the  love  of 
changing  and  perishable  things.  .  .  .  But  if 
our  love,  under  all  its  earthly  aspects,  was 
the  love  of  the  true  soul,  of  what  is  immortal 
and  divine  in  every  man  and  woman,  that 
love  cannot  die,  but  will  find  once  more  what 
seems  beautiful,  true  and  lovable  in  worlds 
to  come,  as  in  worlds  that  have  passed.  .  .  . 
What  we  truly  love  in  everything  is  the  eternal 
atman,  the  immortal  self,  and  as  we  should 
add,  the  immortal  God,  for  the  immortal  self 
and  the  immortal  God  must  be  one. 

Last  Essays. 
124 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  125 

We  must  not  forget  that  if  earthly  love  has  in 
the  vulgar  mind  been  often  degraded  into  mere 
animal  passion,  it  still  remains  in  its  purest  sense 
the  highest  mystery  of  our  existence,  the  most 
perfect  blessing  and  delight  on  earth,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  truest  pledge  of  our  more  than 
human  nature.  To  be  able  to  feel  the  same 
unselfish  devotion  to  the  Deity  which  the  human 
heart  is  capable  of,  if  filled  with  love  for  another 
human  soul,  is  something  that  may  well  be  called 
the    best    religion.  Gifford  Lectures,  IV. 


What  the  present  generation  ought  to  learn,  the 
young  as  well  as  the  old,  is  spirit  and  perseverance 
to  discover  the  beautiful,  pleasure  and  joy  in 
making  it  known,  and  resigning  ourselves  with 
grateful  hearts  to  its  enjoyment;  in  a  word — love, 
in  the  old,  true,  eternal  meaning  of  the  word. 
Only  sweep  away  the  dust  of  self-conceit,  the  cob- 
webs of  selfishness,  the  mud  of  envy,  and  the  old 
type  of  humanity  will  soon  reappear,  as  it  was 
when  it  could  still  "embrace  millions. "  The  love 
of  mankind,  the  true  fountain  of  all  humanity,  is 
still  there;  it  can  never  be  quite  choked  up.  He 
who  can  descend  into  this  fountain  of  youth,  who 
can  again  recover  himself,  who  can  again  be  that 
which    he    was    by    nature,    loves    the    beautiful 


i26  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

wherever  he  finds  it;  he  understands  enjoyment 
and  enthusiasm,  in  the  few  quiet  hours  which  he 
can  win  for  himself  in  the  noisy,  deafening  hurry 
of  the  times  in  which  we  live. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 

Would  not  the  carrying  out  of  one  single  com- 
mandment of  Christ,  "  Love  one  another,"  change 
the  whole  aspect  of  the  world,  and  sweep  away 
prisons  and  workhouses,  and  envying  and  strife, 
and  all  the  strongholds  of  the  devil  ?  Two  thou- 
sand years  have  nearly  passed  and  people  have  not 
yet  understood  that  one  single  command  of  Christ, 
"Love  one  another"!  We  are  as  perfect  heathens 
in  that  one  respect  as  it  is  possible  to  be.  No, 
this  world  might  be  heaven  on  earth,  if  we  would 
but  carry  out  God's  work  and  God's  command- 
ments, and  so  it  will  be  hereafter.  Life. 

If  we  do  a  thing  because  we  think  it  is  our  duty, 
we  generally  fail;  that  is  the  old  law  which  makes 
slaves  of  us.  The  real  spirng  of  our  life,  and  of 
our  work  in  life,  must  be  love — true  deep  love — 
not  love  of  this  or  that  person,  or  for  this  or  that 
reason,  but  deep  human  love,  devotion  of  soul  to 
soul,  love  of  God  realised  where  alone  it  can  be,  in 
love  of  those  whom  He  loves.     Everything  else  is 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  127 

weak,  passes  away;  that  love  alone  supports  us, 
makes  life  tolerable,  binds  the  present  together  with 
the  past  and  future,  and  is,  we  may  trust,  imperish- 
able. Ibid. 


Love  which  seems  so  unselfish  may  become  very 
selfish  if  we  are  not  on  our  guard.  Do  not  shut 
your  eyes  to  what  is  dark  in  others,  but  do  not 
dwell  on  it  except  so  far  as  it  helps  to  bring  out 
more  strongly  what  is  bright  in  them,  lovely  and 
unselfish.  The  true  happiness  of  true  love  is  self 
forgetfulness  and  trust.  Ibid. 


There  is  nothing  in  life  like  a  mother's  love, 
though  children  often  do  not  find  it  out  till  it  is  too 
late.  If  you  want  to  be  really  happy  in  life,  love 
your  mother  with  all  your  heart;  it  is  a  blessing  to 
feel  that  you  belong  to  her,  and  that  through  her 
you  are  connected  by  an  unbroken  chain  with  the 
highest  source  of  our  being.  MS. 


Is  there  such  a  thing  as  a  lost  love  ?  I  do  not 
believe  it.  Nothing  that  is  true  and  great  is  ever 
lost  on  earth,  though  its  fulfilment  may  be  deferred 
beyond  this  short  life.     .     .     .     Love  is  eternal, 


i28  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

and  all  the  more  so  if  it  does  not  meet  with  its  ful- 
filment on  earth.  If  once  we  know  that  our  lives 
are  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  that  nothing  can  hap- 
pen to  us  without  His  Will,  we  are  thankful  for 
the  trials  which  He  sends  us.  Is  there  anyone 
who  loves  us  more  than  God  ?  anyone  who  knows 
better  what  is  for  our  real  good  than  God  ?  This 
little  artificial  and  complicated  society  of  ours  may 
sometimes  seem  to  be  outside  His  control,  but  if  we 
think  so  it  is  our  own  fault,  and  we  have  to  suffer 
for  it.  We  blame  our  friends,  we  mistrust  our- 
selves, and  all  this  because  our  wild  hearts  will  not 
be  quiet  in  that  narrow  cage  in  which  they  must 
be  kept  to  prevent  mischief.  Life. 


Does  love  pass  away  (with  death)  ?  I  cannot 
believe  it.  God  made  us  as  we  are,  many,  instead 
of  one.  Christ  died  for  all  of  us  individually,  and 
such  as  we  are — beings  incomplete  in  themselves, 
and  perfect  only  through  love  to  God  on  one  side, 
and  through  love  to  man  on  the  other.  We  want 
both  kinds  of  love  for  our  very  existence,  and 
therefore  in  a  higher  and  better  existence  too  the 
love  of  kindred  souls  may  well  exist  together  with 
our  love  of  God.  We  need  not  love  those  we  love 
best  on  earth  less  in  heaven,  though  we  may  love 
all  better  than  we  do  on  earth.    After  all,  love  seems 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  129 

only  the  taking  away  those  unnatural  barriers 
which  divide  us  from  our  fellow  creatures — it  is 
only  the  restoration  of  that  union  which  binds  us 
all  together  in  God,  and  which  has  been  broken  on 
earth  we  know  not  how.  In  Christ  alone  that 
union  was  preserved,  for  He  loved  us  all  with  a 
love  warmer  than  the  love  of  a  husband  for  his 
wife,  or  a  mother  for  her  child.  He  gave  His  life 
for  us,  and  if  we  ask  ourselves  there  is  hardly  a 
husband  or  a  mother  who  would  really  suffer  death 
for  his  wife  or  her  child.  Thus  we  see  that  even 
what  seems  to  us  the  most  perfect  love  is  very  far 
as  yet  from  the  perfection  of  love  which  drives  out 
the  whole  self  and  all  that  is  selfish,  and  we  must 
try  to  love  more,  not  to  love  less,  and  trust  that  what 
is  imperfect  here  is  not  meant  to  be  destroyed,  but 
to  be  made  perfect  hereafter.  With  God  nothing 
is  imperfect.  We  must  live  and  love  in  God,  and 
then  we  need  not  fear:  though  our  life  seem 
chequered  and  fleeting,  we  know  that  there  is  a 
home  for  us  in  God,  and  rest  for  all  our  troubles 
in  Christ.  Ibid. 


Let  us  hold  together  while  life  lasts.  Hand  in 
hand  we  may  achieve  more  than  each  alone  by  him- 
self. We  are  much  less  afraid  when  we  are  two 
together.     The    chief   condition    of   all    spiritual 


130 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


friendship  is  perfect  frankness.  There  is  no  bet- 
ter proof  of  true  friendship  than  sincere  reproof, 
where  such  reproof  is  necessary.  We  are  occupied 
in  one  great  work,  and  in  this  consciousness  all 
that  is  small  must  necessarily  disappear. 

Ibid. 

Why  do  we  love  so  deeply  ?  Is  not  that  also 
God's  will  ?  And  if  so  why  should  that  love  ever 
cease  ?  What  should  we  be  without  it  ?  I  cannot 
believe  that  we  are  to  surrender  that  love,  that  we 
are  to  lose  those  who  were  given  us  to  love.  Love 
may  be  purified,  may  become  more  and  more 
unselfish,  may  be  very  different  from  what  it  was 
on  earth,  but  sympathy,  suffering  together  and 
rejoicing  together,  lies  very  deep  at  the  root  of  all 
being — were  it  ever  to  cease,  our  very  being  might 
cease  too.  We  cannot  help  loving,  loving  more 
and  more,  better  and  better.  Thus  life  becomes 
brighter  and  brighter  again,  and  we  feel  that  we 
have  not  lost  those  who  are  taken  from  us  for  a 
little  while.  We  love  them  all  the  more,  all  the 
better.  MS. 


How  selfish  we  are  even  in  our  love.  Here  we 
live  for  a  short  season,  and  we  know  we  must  part 
sooner  or  later,     We  wish  to  go  first,  and  to  leave 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  131 

those  whom  we  love  behind  us,  and  we  sorrow 
because  they  went  first  and  left  us  behind.  As 
soon  as  one  looks  beyond  this  life,  it  seems  so 
short,  yet  there  was  a  time  when  it  seemed  endless. 

MS. 

The  past  is  ours,  and  there  we  have  all  who  loved 
us,  and  whom  we  love  as  much  as  ever,  aye,  more 
than  ever.  MS. 


MANKIND 

The  earth  was  unintelligible  to  the  ancients 
because  looked  upon  as  a  solitary  being,  without 
a  peer  in  the  whole  universe;  but  it  assumed  a  new 
and  true  significance  as  soon  as  it  rose  before  the 
eyes  of  man  as  one  of  many  planets,  all  governed 
by  the  same  laws,  and  all  revolving  around  the 
same  centre.  It  is  the  same  with  the  human  soul, 
and  its  nature  stands  before  our  mind  in  quite  a 
different  light  since  man  has  been  taught  to  know 
and  feel  himself  as  a  member  of  a  great  family — as 
one  of  the  myriads  of  wandering  stars  all  governed 
by  the  same  laws,  and  all  revolving  around  the 
same  centre,  and  all  deriving  their  light  from  the 
same  source.  "Universal  History"  has  laid  open 
new  avenues  of  thought,  and  it  has  enriched  our 
language  with  a  word  which  never  passed  the  lips 
of  Socrates,  or  Plato,  or  Aristotle — Mankind. 
Where  the  Greek  saw  barbarians  we  see  brethren; 
where  the  Greek  saw  nations,  we  see  mankind, 
toiling  and  suffering,  separated  by  oceans,  divided 
by  language,  and  severed  by  national  enmity — 
yet  evermore  tending,  under  a  Divine  control, 
toward  the  fulfilment  of  that  inscrutable  purpose 

132 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  133 

for  which  the  world  was  created,  and  man  placed 
in  it,  bearing  the  image  of  God.  History  there- 
fore, with  its  dusty  and  mouldering  pages,  is  to  us 
as  sacred  a  volume  as  the  book  of  nature.  In  both 
we  read,  or  we  try  to  read,  the  reflex  of  the  laws 
and  thoughts  of  a  Divine  Wisdom.  We  believe 
that  there  is  nothing  irrational  in  either  history  or 
nature,  and  that  the  human  mind  is  called  upon  to 
read  and  to  revere  in  both  the  manifestations  of  a 
Divine  Power. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 

There  are  two  antagonistic  schools — the  one 
believing  in  a  descending,  the  other  in  an  ascending 
development  of  the  human  race;  the  one  asserting 
that  the  history  of  the  human  mind  begins  of  neces- 
sity with  a  state  of  purity  and  simplicity  which 
gradually  gives  way  to  corruption,  perversity,  and 
savagery;  the  other  maintaining  that  the  first 
human  beings  could  not  have  been  more  than  one 
step  above  the  animals,  and  that  their  whole  history 
is  one  of  progress  toward  higher  perfection.  With 
regard  to  the  beginnings  of  religion,  the  one  school 
holds  to  a  primitive  suspicion  of  something  that  is 
beyond — call  it  supernatural,  transcendental,  in- 
finite, or  divine.  It  considers  a  silent  walking 
across  this  bridge  of  life,  with  eyes  fixed  on  high, 
as  a  more  perfect  realisation  of  primitive  religion 


134 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


than  singing  of  Vedic  hymns,  offering  of  Jewish 
sacrifices,  or  the  most  elaborate  creeds  and  articles. 
The  other  begins  with  the  purely  animal  and 
passive  nature  of  man,  and  tries  to  show  how  the 
repeated  impressions  of  the  world  in  which  he 
lived  drove  him  to  fetichism  and  totemism,  what- 
ever these  words  may  mean,  to  ancestor  worship, 
to  a  worship  of  nature,  of  trees  and  serpents,  of 
mountains  and  rivers,  of  clouds  and  meteors,  of 
sun  and  moon  and  stars,  and  the  vault  of  heaven, 
and  at  last  to  a  belief  in  One  who  dwells  in  heaven 
above.  Ibid. 


MIND   OR  THOUGHT 

Wherever  we  can  see  clearly,  we  see  that 
what  we  call  mind  and  thought  consist  in 
this,  that  man  has  the  power  not  only  to  receive 
presentations  like  an  animal,  but  to  discover 
something  general  in  them.  This  element  he 
can  eliminate  and  fix  by  vocal  signs;  and  he 
can  further  classify  single  presentations  under 
the  same  general  concepts,  and  mark  them  by 
the  same  vocal  signs.  Silesian  Horseherd. 


Language  and  thought  go  hand  in  hand;  where 
there  is  as  yet  no  word,  there  is  not  yet  an  idea. 
The  thinking  capacity  of  the  mind  has  its  source 
in  language,  lives  in  language  and  develops  con- 
tinually in  language.  Ibid. 


All  our  thoughts,  even  the  apparently  most 
abstract,  have  their  natural  beginnings  in  what 
passes  daily  before  our  senses.  Nihil  in  fide  nisi 
quod  ante  fuerit  in  sensu.  Man  may  for  a  time  be 
unheedful  of  these  voices  of  nature;  but  they  come 

i35 


136  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

again  and  again,  day  after  day,  night  after 
night,  till  at  last  they  are  heeded.  And  if 
once  heeded,  those  voices  disclose  their  purport 
more  and  more  clearly,  and  what  seemed  at 
first  a  mere  sunrise  becomes  in  the  end  a 
visible  revelation  of  the  infinite,  while  the 
setting  of  the  sun  is  transfigured  into  the  first 
vision  of  immortality.  Hibbert  Lectures. 


As  the  evolution  of  nature  can  be  studied  with 
any  hope  of  success  in  those  products  only  which 
nature  has  left  us,  the  evolution  of  mind  also  can 
be  effectually  studied  in  those  products  only 
which  mind  itself  has  left  us.  These  mental 
products  in  their  earliest  form  are  always 
embodied  in  language,  and  it  is  in  language, 
therefore,  that  we  must  study  the  problem  of 
the  origin,  and  of  the  successive  stages  in  the 
growth  of  mind.  Science  of  Thought. 


If  language  and  reason  are  identical,  or  two 
names,  or  two  aspects  only  of  the  same  thing,  and 
if  we  cannot  doubt  that  language  had  an  historical 
beginning  and  represents  the  work  of  man  carried 
on  through  many  thousands  of  years,  we  cannot 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  before  those  thousands 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  137 

of  years  there  was  a  time  when  the  first  stone  of 
the  great  temple  of  language  was  laid,  and  before 
that  time  man  was  without  language,  and  therefore 
without   reason.  Ibid. 


MIRACLES 

If  once  the  human  mind  has  arrived  at  the  con- 
viction that  everything  must  be  accounted  for,  or, 
as  it  is  sometimes  expressed,  that  there  is  uniform- 
ity, that  there  is  care  and  order  in  everything,  and 
that  an  unbroken  chain  of  cause  and  effect  holds 
the  whole  universe  together,  then  the  idea  of  the 
miraculous  arises,  and  we,  weak  human  creatures, 
call  what  is  not  intelligible  to  us,  what  is  not  in 
accordance  with  law,  what  seems  to  break  through 
the  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  a  miracle.  Every 
miracle,  therefore,  is  of  our  own  making,  and  of 
our  own  unmaking.  Gifjord  Lectures,  III. 


It  is  due  to  the  psychological  necessities  of 
human  nature,  under  the  inspiring  influence  of 
religious  enthusiasm,  that  so  many  of  the  true  signs 
and  wonders  performed  by  the  founders  of  religion 
have  so  often  been  exaggerated,  and,  in  spite  of  the 
strongest  protests  of  these  founders  themselves, 
degraded  into  mere  jugglery.  It  is  true  that  all 
this  does  not  form  an  essential  element  of  religion, 
as  we  now  understand  religion.     Miracles  are  no 

138 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  139 

longer  used  as  arguments  in  support  of  the 
truth  of  religious  doctrines.  Miracles  have 
often  been  called  helps  to  faith,  but  they 
have  so  often  proved  stumbling  blocks  to 
faith,  and  no  one  in  our  days  would  venture 
to  say  that  the  truth  as  taught  by  any  religion 
must  stand  or  fall  by  certain  prodigious 
events  which  may  or  may  not  have  happened, 
which  may  or  may  not  have  been  rightly  appre- 
hended by  the  followers  of  Buddha,  Christ,  or 
Mohammed.  Gifford  Lectures,  II. 


Our  Lord's  ascension  will  have  to  be  understood 
as  a  sublime  idea,  materialised  in  the  language  of 
children.  Is  not  a  real  fact  that  happened  in  a 
world  in  which  nothing  can  happen  against  the 
will  of  God,  better  than  any  miracle  ?  Why  should 
we  try  to  know  more  than  we  can  know,  if  only  we 
firmly  believe  that  Christ's  immortal  spirit  ascended 
to  the  Father  ?  That  alone  is  true  immortality, 
divine  immortality;  not  the  resuscitation  of  the 
frail  mortal  body,  but  the  immortality  of  the  im- 
mortal divine  soul.  It  was  this  rising  of  the  Spirit, 
and  not  of  the  body,  without  which,  as  St.  Paul 
said,  our  faith  would  be  vain.  It  is  the  Spirit 
that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth  nothing. 

Gifford  Lectures,  III, 


i4o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

It  will  be  to  many  of  the  honest  disciples  of 
Christ  a  real  day  of  Damascus  when  the  very 
name  of  miracle  shall  be  struck  out  of  the  dic- 
tionary of  Christian  theology.  The  facts  remain 
exactly  as  they  are,  but  the  Spirit  of  truth  will  give 
them  a  higher  meaning.  What  is  wTanted  for  this 
is  not  less,  but  more,  faith,  for  it  requires  more 
faith  to  believe  in  Christ  without  than  with  the 
help  of  miracles.  Nothing  has  produced  so  much 
distress  of  mind,  so  much  intellectual  dishonesty, 
so  much  scepticism,  so  much  unbelief,  as  the 
miraculous  element  forced  into  Christianity  from 
the  earliest  days.  Nothing  has  so  much  impeded 
missionary  work  as  the  attempt  to  persuade 
people  first  not  to  believe  in  their  own  miracles, 
and  then  to  make  a  belief  in  other  miracles  a 
condition  of  their  becoming  Christians.  It  is 
easy  to  say,  "You  are  not  a  Christian  if  you  do 
not  believe  in  Christian  miracles."  I  hope  the 
time  will  come  when  we  shall  be  told,  "You  are 
not  a  Christian  if  you  cannot  believe  in  Christ 
without  the  help  of  miracles."  Ibid. 


MUSIC 

Music  is  the  language  of  the  soul,  but  it  defies 
interpretation.  It  means  something,  but  that 
something  belongs  not  to  this  world  of  sense  and 
logic,  but  to  another  world,  quite  real,  though 
beyond  all  definition.  ...  Is  there  not  in 
music,  and  in  music  alone  of  all  the  arts,  something 
that  is  not  entirely  of  this  earth  ?  .  .  .  Whence 
comes  melody  ?  Surely  not  from  anything  that 
we  hear  with  our  outward  ears  and  are  able  to 
imitate,  to  improve,  or  to  sublimise.  .  .  . 
Here  if  anywhere  we  see  the  golden  stairs  on  which 
angels  descend  from  heaven  and  whisper  sweet 
sounds  into  the  ears  of  those  who  have  ears  to 
hear.  Words  cannot  be  so  inspired,  for  words,  we 
know,  are  of  the  earth,  earthy.  Melodies  are  not 
of  the  earth,  and  it  is  truly  said:  "Heard  melodies 
are  sweet,  but  those  unheard  are  sweeter." 

Auld  Lang  Syne. 


141 


NATURE 

There  is  nothing  so  beautiful  as  being  alone 
with  nature;  one  sees  how  God's  will  is  fulfilled  in 
each  bud  and  leaf  that  blooms  and  withers,  and 
one  learns  to  recognise  how  deeply  rooted  in  one 
is  this  thirst  for  nature.  In  living  with  men  one 
is  only  too  easily  torn  from  this  real  home;  then 
one's  own  plans  and  wishes  and  fears  spring  up; 
then  we  fancy  we  can  perfect  something  for  our- 
selves alone,  and  think  that  everything  must 
serve  for  our  own  ends  and  enjoyments,  until  the 
influence  of  nature  in  life,  or  the  hand  of  God, 
arouses  us,  and  warns  us  that  we  live  and  flourish 
not  for  enjoyment,  nor  for  undisturbed  quiet,  but 
to  bear  fruit  in  another  life.  Life. 


When  one  stands  amid  the  grandeur  of  nature, 
with  one's  own  little  murmurings  and  sufferings, 
and  looks  deep  into  this  dumb  soul,  much  becomes 
clear  to  one,  and  one  is  astounded  at  the  false 
ideas  one  has  formed  of  this  life.  It  is  but  a 
short  journey,  and  on  a  journey  one  can  do  without 
many  things  which  generally  seem  necessary  to  us. 

142 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  143 

Yes,  we  can  do  without  even  what  is  dearest  to 
our  hearts,  in  this  world,  if  we  know  that,  after 
the  journey  we  shall  have  to  endure,  we  shall  find 
again  those  who  have  arrived  at  the  goal  quicker 
and  more  easily  than  we  have  done.  Now  if  life 
were  looked  upon  as  a  journey  for  refreshment  or 
amusement,  which  it  ought  not  to  be,  we  might 
feel  sad  if  we  have  to  make  our  way  alone,  but  if 
we  treat  it  as  a  serious  business  journey,  then  we 
know  we  have  hard  and  unpleasant  work  before 
us,  and  enjoy  all  the  more  the  beautiful  resting 
places  which  God's  love  has  provided  for  each  of 
us  in  life.  Ibid. 


In  the  early  days  of  the  world,  the  world  was  too 
full  of  wonders  to  require  any  other  miracles. 
The  whole  world  was  a  miracle  and  a  revelation, 
there  was  no  need  for  any  special  disclosure.  At 
that  time  the  heavens,  the  waters,  the  sun  and 
moon,  the  stars  of  heaven,  the  showers  and  dew, 
the  winds  of  God,  fire  and  heat,  winter  and  sum- 
mer, ice  and  snow,  nights  and  days,  lightnings  and 
clouds,  the  earth,  the  mountains  and  hills,  the 
green  things  upon  the  earth,  the  wells,  and  seas 
and  floods — all  blessed  the  Lord,  praised  Him 
and  magnified  Him  forever.  Can  we  imagine  a 
more   powerful   revelation  ?     Is   it   for   us   to   say 


144  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

that  for  the  children  of  men  to  join  in  praising  and 
magnifying  Him  who  revealed  Himself  in  His 
own  way  in  all  the  magnificence,  the  wisdom  and 
order  of  nature,  is  mere  paganism,  polytheism, 
pantheism,  and  abominable  idolatry  ?  I  have 
heard  many  blasphemies;  I  have  heard  none 
greater   than   this.  Gifford  Lectures,  II. 


OBSCURITY 

There  may  be  much  depth  of  wisdom  in  all 
that  darkness  and  vagueness,  but  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  there  is  nothing  that  cannot  be  made 
clear,  and  bright,  and  simple,  and  that  obscurity 
arises  in  all  cases  from  slovenly  thinking  and  lazy 
writing.  MS. 


i45 


OLD  AGE 

Sharing  the  happiness  of  other  people,  entering 
into  their  feelings,  living  life  over  once  more  with 
them  and  in  them,  that  is  all  that  remains  to  old 
people.  I  suppose  it  was  meant  to  be  so,  the 
principal  object  of  life  being  the  overcoming  of 
self,  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  Life. 


This  is  a  lesson  one  has  to  learn  as  one  grows 
older,  to  learn  to  be  alone,  and  yet  to  feel  one  in 
spirit  with  all  whom  one  loves,  whether  present  or 
absent.  MS. 


You  cannot  escape  from  old  age,  whether  it 
comes  slowly  or  suddenly,  but  it  comes  unawares, 
and  you  suddenly  feel  that  you  cannot  walk  or 
jump  as  you  used  to  do,  and  even  the  muscles 
of  the  mind  don't  hold  out  as  they  used.  Well, 
so  it  was  meant  to  be,  and  it  will  be  pleasant  to 
begin  again  with  new  muscles,  and  to  take  up 
new  work.  After  seeing  a  good  deal  of  life,  I 
still    think    the    greatest    satisfaction     is     work: 

146 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


H7 


I     do     not     mean      drudgery,     but     one's     own 
findings  out.  Life. 


As  one  is  getting  old,  and  looks  forward  with 
fear  rather  than  with  hope  to  what  is  still  in 
store  for  us,  one  learns  to  appreciate  more  and 
more  the  never  failing  pleasure  of  recalling  all  the 
bright  and  happy  days  that  are  gone.  Gone 
they  are,  but  they  are  not  lost.  Ever  present  to 
our  calling  and  recalling,  they  assume  at  last  a 
vividness  such  as  they  hardly  had  when  present, 
and  when  we  poor  souls  were  trembling  for  every 
day  and  hour  and  minute  that  was  going  and 
ever  going  and  would  not  and  could  not  abide. 

Ibid. 


RELIGION  AND   RELIGIONS 

God  is  not  far  from  each  one  of  those  who  seek 
God,  if  haply  they  may  feel  after  Him.  Let 
theologians  pile  up  volume  upon  volume  of  what 
they  call  theology,  religion  is  a  very  simple  matter, 
and  that  which  is  so  simple  and  yet  so  all-important 
to  us,  the  living  kernel  of  religion,  can  be  found,  I 
believe,  in  almost  every  creed,  however  much  the 
husk  may  vary.  And  think  what  that  means! 
It  means  that  above  and  beneath  and  behind  all 
religions  there  is  one  eternal,  one  universal  religion, 
a  religion  to  which  every  man  belongs,  or  may 
belong.  Last  Essays. 


True  religion,  that  is,  practical,  active,  living 
religion,  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  logical 
or  metaphysical  quibbles.  Practical  religion  is 
life,  is  a  new  life,  a  life  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  it 
springs  from  what  may  truly  be  called  a  new  birth. 

Ibid. 

Our  senses  can  never  perceive  a  real  boundary, 
be  it  on  the  largest  or  the  smallest  scale;  they 

148 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  149 

present  to  us  everywhere  the  infinite  as  their 
background,  and  everything  that  has  to  do  with 
religion  has  sprung  out  of  this  infinite  background 
as  its  ultimate  and  deepest  foundation. 

Sdesian  Horseberd. 

I  cannot  bring  myself  to  take  much  interest  in 
all  the  controversies  that  are  going  on  [1865]  in 
the  Church  of  England.  .  .  .  No  doubt  the 
points  at  issue  are  great,  and  appeal  to  our  hearts 
and  minds,  but  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  treated 
seems  to  me  so  very  small.  How  few  men  on 
either  side  give  you  the  impression  that  they  write 
face  to  face  with  God,  and  not  face  to  face  with 
men  and  the  small  powers  that  be.  Surely  this 
was  not  so  in  the  early  centuries,  nor  again  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  ?  Life. 


We  live  in  two  worlds:  behind  the  seen  is  the 
unseen,  around  the  Finite  the  Infinite,  above  the 
comprehensible  the  incomprehensible.  There  have 
been  men  who  have  lived  in  this  world  only,  who 
seem  never  to  have  felt  the  real  presence  of  the 
unseen:  and  yet  they  achieved  some  greatness  as 
rulers  of  men,  as  poets,  artists,  philosophers,  and 
discoverers.  But  the  greatest  among  the  great 
have  done  their  greatest  works  in  moments  of  self- 


1 5o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

forgetful  ecstasy,  in  union  and  communion  with  a 
higher  world:  and  when  it  was  done,  such  was 
their  silent  rapture  that  they  started  back,  and 
could  not  believe  it  was  their  own,  their  very  own, 
and  they  ascribed  the  glory  of  it  to  God,  by 
whatever  name  they  called  Him  in  their  various 
utterances.  And  while  the  greatest  among  the 
great  thus  confessed  that  they  were  not  of  this 
world  only,  and  that  their  best  work  was  but  in 
part  their  own,  those  whom  we  reverence  as  the 
founders  of  religions,  and  who  were  at  once 
philosophers,  poets,  and  rulers  of  men,  called 
nothing  their  own,  but  professed  to  teach  only 
either  what  their  fathers  had  taught  them,  or 
what  a  far-off  Voice  had  whispered  in  their  ear. 
.  .  .  The  ancient  religions  were  not  founded 
like  temples  or  palaces,  they  sprang  up  like  sacred 
graves  from  the  soil  of  humanity,  quickened  by 
the  rays  of  celestial  light.  In  India,  Greece, 
Italy  and  Germany  not  even  the  names  of  the 
earliest  prophets  are  preserved.  And,  if  in  other 
countries  the  forms  and  features  of  the  authors  of 
their  religious  faith  and  worship  are  still  dimly 
visible  amidst  the  clouds  of  legend  and  poetry, 
all  of  them,  Moses  as  well  as  Zoroaster,  Confucius, 
Buddha  and  Mohammed,  seem  to  proclaim  with 
one  voice  that  their  faith  was  no  new  faith, 
but  the  faith  of  their  fathers;  that  their  wisdom 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  151 

was  not  their  own  wisdom,  but,  like  every  good 
and  perfect  gift,  given  them  from  above.  What 
should  we  learn  from  these  prophets  who  from 
distant  countries  and  bygone  ages  all  bear  the 
same  witness  to  the  same  truth  ?  We  should  learn 
that  though  religions  may  be  founded  and  fashioned 
into  strange  shapes  by  the  hand  of  man,  religion  is 
one  and  eternal.  From  the  first  dawn  that  ever 
brightened  a  human  hearth  or  warmed  a  human 
heart,  one  generation  has  told  another  that  there 
is  a  world  beyond  the  dawn;  and  the  keynotes  of 
all  religion — the  feeling  of  the  Infinite,  the  bowing 
down  before  the  incomprehensible,  the  yearning 
after  the  unseen — having  once  been  set  to  vibrate, 
have  never  been  altogether  drowned  in  the  strange 
and  wild  music  of  religious  sects  and  sciences. 
The  greatest  prophets  of  the  world  have  been 
those  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners 
have  proclaimed  again  and  again  in  the  simplest 
words  the  simple  creed  of  the  fathers,  faith  in  the 
unseen,  reverence  for  the  incomprehensible,  awe 
of  the  Infinite — or,  simpler  still  love  of  God,  and 
oneness  with  the  All-Father.  Ibid. 


I  have  endeavoured  to  make  clear  two  things, 
which  constitute  the  foundation  of  all  religion: 
first  that  the  world  is  rational,  that  it  is  the  result 


i52  LIFE  AND   RELIGION 

of  thought,  and  that  in  this  sense  only  is  it 
the  creation  of  a  being  which  possesses  reason, 
or  is  reason  itself  (the  Logos);  and  secondly 
that  mind  or  thought  cannot  be  the  outcome 
of  matter,  but  on  the  contrary  is  the  prius 
of    all    things.  Silesian  Horseherd. 


Religion  is  not  philosophy;  but  there  never  has 
been  a  religion,  and  there  never  can  be,  which  is 
not  based  on  philosophy,  and  does  not  presuppose 
the  philosophical  notions  of  the  people.  The 
highest  aim,  toward  which  all  philosophy  strives, 
is  and  will  always  remain  the  idea  of  God, 
and  it  was  this  idea  which  Christianity 
grasped  in  the  Platonic  sense,  and  presented 
to  us  most  clearly  in  its  highest  form,  in  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  Ibid, 


There  has  been  no  entirely  new  religion  since 
the  beginning  of  the  world.  The  elements  and 
roots  of  religion  were  there,  as  far  back  as  we  can 
trace  the  history  of  man;  and  the  history  of  religion 
shows  us  throughout  a  succession  of  new  combina- 
tions of  the  same  radical  elements.  An  intuition 
of  God,  a  sense  of  human  weakness  and  depend- 
ence,   a    belief  in    a    Divine   government   of  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  153 

world,  a  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  and  a 
hope  of  a  better  life,  these  are  some  of  the  radical 
elements  of  all  religions.  Though  sometimes 
hidden,  they  rise  again  and  again  to  the  surface. 
Though  frequently  distorted,  they  tend  again  and 
again  to  their  perfect  form.  Unless  they  had 
formed  part  of  the  original  dowry  of  the  human 
soul,  religion  would  have  remained  an  impossibility, 
and  the  tongues  of  angels  would  have  been  to 
human  ears  but  as  sounding  brass,  or  as  tinkling 
cymbals.  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 


In  lecturing  on  the  origin  and  growth  of  religion, 
my  chief  object  has  been  to  show  that  a  belief  in 
God,  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  in  a 
future  retribution,  can  be  gained,  and  not  only  can 
be,  but  has  been  gained,  by  the  right  exercise  of 
human  reason  alone,  without  the  assistance  of 
what  has  been  called  a  special  revelation.  In 
doing  this,  I  thought  I  was  simply  following  in 
the  footsteps  of  the  greatest  theologians  of  our 
time,  and  that  I  was  serving  the  cause  of  true 
religion  by  showing,  by  ample  historical  evidence, 
gathered  from  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  how 
what  St.  Paul,  what  the  Fathers  of  the  Church, 
what  mediaeval  theologians,  and  what  some  of 
the  most  learned  of  modern  divines  had  asserted 


i54  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

again  and  again  was  most  strikingly  confirmed 
by  the  records  of  all  non-Christian  religions  which 
have  lately  become  accessible  to  us.  I  could  not 
have  believed  it  possible  that,  in  undertaking 
this  work,  I  should  have  exposed  myself  to  at- 
tacks from  theologians  who  profess  and  call  them- 
selves Christians,  and  who  yet  maintain  that 
worst  of  all  heresies,  that  during  all  the  centuries 
that  have  elapsed  and  in  all  the  countries  of  the 
world,  God  has  left  Himself  without  a  witness,  and 
has  revealed  Himself  to  one  race  only,  the  Jews 
of  Palestine.  Gifford  Lectures,  III. 


If  there  is  one  thing  which  a  comparative  study 
of  religions  places  in  the  clearest  light,  it  is  the 
inevitable  decay  to  which  every  religion  is  exposed. 
It  may  seem  almost  like  a  truism  that  no  religion 
can  continue  to  be  what  it  was  during  the  life- 
time of  its  founders  and  its  first  apostles.  Yet  it 
is  but  seldom  borne  in  mind  that  without  constant 
reformation,  i.  e.,  without  a  constant  return  to  its 
fountain  head,  every  religion,  even  the  most 
perfect,  on  account  of  its  very  perfection,  more 
even  than  others — suffers  from  its  contact  with 
the  world,  as  the  purest  air  suffers  from  the  mere 
fact  of  being  breathed. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  155 

To  each  individual  his  own  religion,  if 
he  really  believes  in  it,  is  something  quite 
inseparable  from  himself,  something  unique, 
that  cannot  be  compared  to  anything  else, 
or  replaced  by  anything  else.  Our  own  religion 
is,  in  that  respect,  something  like  our  own 
language.  In  its  form  it  may  be  like  other 
languages;  in  its  essence,  and  in  its  relation  to 
ourselves,  it  stands  alone  and  admits  of  no 
peer  or  rival.  Ibid. 


Three  of  the  results  to  which,  I  believe,  a  com- 
parative study  of  religion  is  sure  to  lead,  I  may 
here  state: 

1.  We  shall  learn  that  religions,  in  their  most 
ancient  form,  or  in  the  minds  of  their  authors, 
are  generally  free  from  many  of  the  blemishes 
that  attach  to  them  in  later  times. 

2.  We  shall  learn  that  there  is  hardly  one 
religion  which  does  not  contain  some  truth,  some 
important  truth;  truth  sufficient  to  enable  those 
who  seek  the  Lord  and  feel  after  Him,  to  find  Him 
in  their  hour  of  need. 

3.  We  shall  learn  to  appreciate  better  than  ever 
what  we  have  in  our  own  religion.  No  one  who 
has  not  examined  patiently  and  honestly  the  other 
religions  of  the  world,  can  know  what  Christianity 


156  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

really  is,  or  can  join  with  such  truth  and  sincerity 
in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "I  am  not  ashamed  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ. "  Ibid. 


Many  are  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  a 
careful  study  of  other  religions,  but  the  greatest 
of  all  is  that  it  teaches  us  to  appreciate  more 
truly  what  we  possess  in  our  own.  Let  us  see 
what  other  nations  have  had  and  still  have  in  the 
place  of  religion,  let  us  examine  the  prayers,  the 
worship,  the  theology  even  of  the  most  highly 
civilised  races,  and  we  shall  then  understand  more 
thoroughly  what  blessings  are  vouchsafed  to  us 
in  being  allowed  to  breathe  from  the  first  breath 
of  life  the  pure  air  of  a  land  of  Christian  light  and 
knowledge.  We  are  too  apt  to  take  the  greatest 
blessings  as  matters  of  course,  and  even  religion 
forms  no  exception.  We  have  done  so  little  to 
gain  our  religion,  we  have  suffered  so  little  in  the 
cause  of  truth,  that  however  highly  we  prize  our 
own  Christianity,  we  never  prize  it  highly  enough 
until  we  have  compared  it  with  the  religions  of  the 
rest  of  the  world.  Ibid. 


The  spirit  of  truth  is  the  life  spring  of  all  re- 
ligion, and  where  it  exists  it  must  manifest  itself, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  157 

it  must  plead,  it  must  persuade,  it  must  convince 
and  convert.  Ibid. 


As  there  is  a  faculty  of  speech  independent  of 
all  the  historical  forms  of  language,  there  is  a 
faculty  of  faith  in  man,  independent  of  all  histori- 
cal religions.  If  we  say  it  is  religion  which  dis- 
tinguishes man  from  the  animal,  we  do  not  mean 
the  Christian  and  Jewish  religion:  we  do  not  mean 
any  special  religion:  but  we  mean  a  mental  faculty 
or  disposition,  which,  independent  of,  nay,  in 
spite  of,  sense  and  reason,  enables  man  to  appre- 
hend the  Infinite  under  different  names,  and  under 
varying  disguises.  Without  that  faculty,  no  re- 
ligion, not  even  the  lowest  worship  of  idols  and 
fetiches,  would  be  possible;  and  if  we  will  but 
listen  attentively,  we  can  hear  in  all  religions  a 
groaning  of  the  spirit,  a  struggle  to  conceive  the 
inconceivable,  to  utter  the  unutterable,  a  longing 
after  the  Infinite,  a  love  of  God. 

Science  of  Religion. 

Like  an  old  precious  metal,  the  ancient  religion, 
after  the  dust  of  ages  has  been  removed,  will 
come  out  in  all  its  purity  and  brightness;  and  the 
image  which  it  discloses  will  be  the  image  of  the 
Father,  the  Father  of  all  the  nations  upon  earth; 


158  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

and  the  superscription,  where  we  can  read  it  again, 
will  be,  not  in  Judaea  only,  but  in  the  languages 
of  all  the  races  of  the  world,  the  Word  of  God 
revealed  where  alone  it  can  be  revealed — revealed 
in  the  heart  of  man.  Ibid. 


If  we  granted  that  all  religions,  except  Chris- 
tianity and  Mosaism,  derived  their  origin  from 
those  faculties  of  the  mind  only  which,  according 
to  Paley,  are  sufficient  by  themselves  for  calling 
into  life  the  fundamental  tenets  of  natural  religion, 
the  classification  of  Christianity  and  Judaism  on 
one  side  as  revealed,  and  of  the  other  religions  as 
natural,  would  still  be  defective,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  no  religion,  though  founded  on 
revelation,  can  ever  be  entirely  separated  from 
natural  religion.  The  tenets  of  natural  religion, 
though  they  never  constituted  by  themselves  a 
real  historical  religion,  supply  the  only  ground  on 
which  even  revealed  religions  can  stand,  the  only 
soil  where  they  can  strike  root,  and  from  which 
they  can  receive  nourishment  and  life.       Ibid. 


The  intention  of  religion,  wherever  we  meet  it, 
is  always  holy.  However  imperfect,  however 
childish  a  religion  may  be,  it  always  places  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  159 

human  soul  in  the  presence  of  God:  and  however 
imperfect  and  however  childish  the  conception  of 
God  may  be,  it  always  represents  the  highest  ideal 
of  perfection  which  the  human  soul,  for  the 
time  being,  can  reach  and  grasp.  Religion  there- 
fore places  the  human  soul  in  the  presence  of  its 
highest  ideal,  it  lifts  it  above  the  level  of  ordinary 
goodness,  and  produces  at  last  a  yearning  after  a 
higher  and  better  life — a  life  in  the  light  of  God. 

Ibid. 

I  suppose  that  most  of  us,  sooner  or  later  in  life, 
have  felt  how  the  whole  world — this  wicked 
world,  as  we  call  it — is  changed  as  if  by  magic,  if 
once  we  can  make  up  our  mind  to  give  men  credit 
for  good  motives,  aever  to  be  suspicious,  never  to 
think  evil,  never  to  think  ourselves  better  than 
our  neighbours.  Trust  a  man  to  be  true  and 
good,  and,  even  if  he  is  not,  your  trust  will  tend 
to  make  him  true  and  good.  It  is  the  same  with 
the  religions  of  the  world.  Let  us  but  once 
make  up  our  minds  to  look  in  them  for  what  is 
true  and  good,  and  we  shall  hardly  know  our  old 
religions  again.  There  is  no  religion — or,  if  there 
is,  I  do  not  know  it — which  does  not  say,  "Do 
good,  avoid  evil."  There  is  none  which  does  not 
contain  what  Rabbi  Hillel  called  the  quintessence 
of  all  religions,  the  simple  warning,  "  Be  good,  my 


i6o  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

boy."  "Be  good,  my  boy,"  may  seem  a  very 
short  catechism,  but  let  us  add  to  it,  "Be  good, 
my  boy,  for  God's  sake,"  and  we  have  in  it  very 
nearly  the  whole  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets. 

Ibid. 

In  order  to  choose  between  different  gods,  and 
different  forms  of  faith,  a  man  must  possess  the 
faculty  of  choosing  the  instruments  of  testing 
truth  and  untruth,  whether  revealed  or  not;  he 
must  know  that  certain  fundamental  tenets  cannot 
be  absent  in  any  true  religion  and  that  there  are 
doctrines  against  which  his  rational  or  moral 
conscience  revolts  as  incompatible  with  truth. 
In  short,  there  must  be  the  foundation  of  religion, 
there  must  be  the  solid  rock,  before  it  is  possible 
to  erect  an  altar,  a  temple,  or  a  church:  and  if 
we  call  that  foundation  natural  religion,  it  is 
clear  that  no  revealed  religion  can  be  thought  of 
which  does  not  rest  more  or  less  firmly  on  natural 
religion.  Ibid. 


Universal  primeval  revelation  is  only  another 
name  for  natural  religion,  and  it  rests  on  no 
authority  but  the  speculations  of  philosophers. 
The  same  class  of  philosophers,  considering  that 
language  was  too  wonderful  an  achievement  for 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  161 

the  human  mind,  insisted  on  the  necessity  of 
admitting  a  universal  primeval  language,  revealed 
directly  by  God  to  men,  or  rather  to  mute  beings; 
while  the  more  thoughtful  and  more  reverent  of 
the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  and  among  the  founders 
of  modern  philosophy  also,  pointed  out  that  it 
was  more  consonant  with  the  general  working  of 
an  all-wise  and  all-powerful  Creator  that  He 
should  have  endowed  human  nature  with  the 
essential  conditions  of  speech  instead  of  pre- 
senting mute  beings  with  grammers  and  diction- 
aries ready-made.  The  same  applies  to  religion. 
A  universal  primeval  religion  revealed  direct  by 
God  to  man,  or  rather  to  a  crowd  of  atheists,  may, 
to  our  human  wisdom,  seem  the  best  solution  of 
all  difficulties;  but  a  higher  wisdom  speaks  to  us 
out  of  the  realities  of  history,  and  teaches  us,  if 
we  will  but  learn,  that  "we  have  all  to  seek  the 
Lord,  if  haply  we  may  feel  after  Him,  and  find 
Him,  though  He  is  not  far  from  every  one  of  us." 

Ibid. 

The  study  of  the  ancient  religions  of  mankind, 
I  feel  convinced,  if  carried  on  in  a  bold,  but 
scholarlike,  careful,  and  reverent  spirit,  will 
remove  many  doubts  and  difficulties  which  are  due 
entirely  to  the  narrowness  of  our  religious  horizon; 
it  will  enlarge  our  sympathies,  it  will  raise  our 


162  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

thoughts  above  the  small  controversies  of  the  day, 
and  at  no  distant  future  evoke  in  the  very  heart 
of  Christianity  a  fresh  spirit  and  a  new  life. 

Ibid. 

No  judge,  if  he  had  before  him  the  worst  of 
criminals,  would  treat  him  as  most  historians  and 
theologians  have  treated  the  religions  of  the  world. 
Every  act  in  the  lives  of  their  founders  which 
shows  that  they  were  but  men,  is  eagerly  seized 
and  judged  without  mercy;  every  doctrine  that  is 
not  carefully  guarded  is  interpreted  in  the  worst 
sense  that  it  will  bear;  every  act  of  worship  that 
differs  from  our  own  way  of  serving  God  is  held 
up  to  ridicule  and  contempt.  And  this  is  not 
done  by  accident  but  with  a  purpose,  nay,  with 
something  of  that  artificial  sense  of  duty  which 
stimulates  the  counsel  for  the  defence  to  see  nothing 
but  an  angel  in  his  own  client,  and  anything  but 
an  angel  in  the  plaintiff  on  the  other  side.  The 
result  has  been — as  it  could  not  be  otherwise — a 
complete  miscarriage  of  justice,  an  utter  misap- 
prehension of  the  real  character  and  purpose  of 
the  ancient  religions  of  mankind;  and,  as  a 
necessary  consequence,  a  failure  in  discovering  the 
peculiar  features  which  really  distinguish  Chris- 
tianity from  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  and 
secure  to  its  founder  His  own  peculiar  place  in  the 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  163 

history  of  the  world,  far  away  from  Zoroaster  and 
Buddha,    from    Moses    and     Mohammed,    from 
Confucius   and   Laotse.     By   unduly   depreciating 
all  other  religions,  we  have  placed  our  own  in  a 
position  which  its  founder  never  intended  for  it; 
we  have  torn  it  away  from  the  sacred  context  of 
the   history   of  the   world;   we   have   ignored,   or 
wilfully   narrowed,   the   sundry   times   and   divers 
manners  in  which,  in  times  past,  God  spake  unto 
the    fathers    by    the    prophets;     and    instead    of 
recognising  Christianity  as  coming  in  the  fulness 
of  time,  and  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  hopes  and 
desires    of   the    whole    world,    we    have    brought 
ourselves   to   look    upon    its    advent   as   the   only 
broken    link    in    that    unbroken    chain    which    is 
rightly    called    the    Divine    government    of    the 
world.     Nay,  worse  than  this,   there   are   people 
who,  from  mere  ignorance  of  the  ancient  religions 
of  mankind,  have  adopted  a  doctrine  more   un- 
christian  than   any  that   could   be   found   in   the 
pages  of  the  religious  books  of  antiquity,  i.e.  that 
all  the   nations  of  the   earth,   before  the   rise  of 
Christianity,   were    mere    outcasts,    forsaken    and 
forgotten  of  their   Father   in   Heaven,  without   a 
knowledge  of  God,  without  a   hope  of  Heaven. 
If  a   comparative   study  of  the   religions   of  the 
world  produced  but  this  one  result,  that  it  drove 
this  godless  heresy  out  of  every  Christian  heart, 


164  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

and  made  us  see  again  in  the  whole  history  of  the 
world  the  eternal  wisdom  and  love  of  God  toward 
all  His  creatures,  it  would  have  done  a  good  work. 

Ibid. 

Do  you  still  wonder  at  polytheism  or  at  myth- 
ology ?  Why,  they  are  inevitable.  They  are,  if 
you  like,  a  parler  enfantin  of  religion.  But  the 
world  has  its  childhood,  and  when  it  was  a  child, 
it  spoke  as  a  child,  it  understood  as  a  child,  it 
thought  as  a  child,  and  in  that  it  spoke  as  a  child  its 
language  was  true.  The  fault  rests  with  us,  if 
we  insist  on  taking  the  language  of  children  for 
the  language  of  men,  if  we  attempt  to  translate 
literally  ancient  into  modern  language,  oriental 
into  occidental  speech,  poetry  into  prose. 

Ibid. 

Religion  is  inevitable  if  only  we  are  left  in 
possession  of  our  senses,  such  as  we  really  find 
them,  not  such  as  they  have  been  defined  for  us. 
We  claim  no  special  faculty,  no  special  revelation. 
The  only  faculty  we  claim  is  perception,  the  only 
revelation  we  claim  is  history,  or  as  it  is  now 
called,  historical  evolution.  But  let  it  not  be 
supposed  that  we  find  the  idea  of  the  Infinite 
ready  made  in  the  human  mind  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  history.     All  we  maintain  is  that 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  165 

the  germ  or  the  possibility,  the  Not-yet  of  that 
idea,  lies  hidden  in  the  earliest  sensuous  percep- 
tions, and  that  as  reason  is  evolved  from  what  is 
finite,  so  faith  is  evolved  from  what  from  the 
very  beginning  is  infinite  in  the  perceptions  of  our 
senses.  Hibbert  Lectures. 


Each  religion  has  its  own  peculiar  growth,  but 
the  seed  from  which  they  spring  is  everywhere  the 
same.  That  seed  is  the  perception  of  the  Infinite, 
from  which  no  one  can  escape  who  does  not  wilfully 
shut  his  eyes.  From  the  first  flutter  of  human  con- 
sciousness, that  perception  underlies  all  the  other 
perceptions  of  our  senses,  all  our  imaginings,  all 
our  concepts,  and  every  argument  of  our  reason. 
It  may  be  buried  for  a  time  beneath  the  fragments 
of  our  finite  knowledge,  but  it  is  always  there,  and, 
if  we  dig  deep  enough,  we  shall  always  find  that 
buried  seed,  supplying  the  living  sap  to  the  fibres 
and  feeders  of  all  true  faith.  Ibid. 


Instead  of  approaching  the  religions  of  the  world 
with  the  preconceived  idea  that  they  are  either 
corruptions  of  the  Jewish  religion,  or  descended, 
in  common  with  the  Jewish  religion,  from  some 
perfect  primeval   revelation,  the   students  of  the 


166  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

science  of  religion  have  seen  that  it  is  their  duty 
first  to  collect  all  the  evidence  of  the  early  history 
of  religious  thought  that  is  still  accessible  in  the 
sacred  books  of  the  world,  or  in  the  mythology, 
customs,  or  even  in  the  languages  of  various  races. 
Afterward  they  have  undertaken  a  genealogical 
classification  of  all  the  materials  that  have  hitherto 
been  collected,  and  they  have  then  only  approached 
the  question  of  the  origin  of  religion  in  a  new  spirit, 
by  trying  to  find  out  how  the  roots  of  the  various 
religions,  the  radical  concepts  which  form  their 
foundation,  and  before  all,  the  concept  of  the 
Infinite,  could  have  been  developed,  taking  for 
granted  nothing  but  sensuous  perception  on  one 
side  and  the  world  by  which  we  are  surrounded 
on  the  other.  Ibid. 


A  distinction  has  been  made  for  us  between 
religion  and  philosophy,  and,  so  far  as  form  and 
object  are  concerned,  I  do  not  deny  that  such  a  dis- 
tinction may  be  useful.  But  when  we  look  to  the 
subjects  with  which  religion  is  concerned,  they  are, 
and  always  have  been,  the  very  subjects  on  which 
philosophy  has  dwelt,  nay,  from  which  philosophy 
has  sprung.  If  religion  depends  for  its  very  life 
on  the  sentiment  or  the  perception  of  the  Infinite 
within  the  Finite  and  beyond  the  Finite,  who  is  to 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  167 

determine  the  legitimacy  of  that  sentiment,  or  of 
that  perception,  if  not  the  philosopher  ?  Who  is 
to  determine  the  powers  which  man  possesses  for 
apprehending  the  Finite  by  his  senses,  for  working 
up  his  single,  and  therefore  finite,  impressions  into 
concepts  by  his  reason,  if  not  the  philosopher? 
And  who,  if  not  the  philosopher,  is  to  find  out 
whether  man  can  claim  the  right  of  asserting  the 
existence  of  the  Infinite,  in  spite  of  the  constant 
opposition  of  sense  and  reason,  taking  these  words 
in  their  usual  meaning  ?  We  should  damnify 
religion  if  we  separated  it  from  philosophy:  we 
should  ruin  philosophy  if  we  divorced  it  from 
religion.  Ibid. 


Who,  if  he  is  honest  toward  himself,  could  say 
that  the  religion  of  his  manhood  was  the  same  as 
that  of  his  childhood,  or  the  religion  of  his  old  age 
the  same  as  the  religion  of  his  manhood  ?  It  is 
easy  to  deceive  ourselves,  and  to  say  that  the  most 
perfect  faith  is  a  childlike  faith.  Nothing  can  be 
truer,  and  the  older  we  grow  the  more  we  learn  to 
understand  the  wisdom  of  a  childlike  faith.  But 
before  we  can  learn  that,  we  have  first  to  learn 
another  lesson,  namely,  to  put  away  childish  things. 
There  is  the  same  glow  about  the  setting  sun  as 
there  is  about  the  rising  sun;  but  there  lies  between 


1 68  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

the  two  a  whole  world,  a  journey  through  the  whole 
sky,  and  over  the  whole  earth.  Ibid. 


I  hope  the  time  will  come  when  the  subterranean 
area  of  human  religion  will  be  rendered  more  and 
more  accessible  .  .  .  and  that  the  Science  of 
Religion,  which  at  present  is  but  a  desire  and  a 
seed,  will  in  time  become  a  fulfilment,  a  plenteous 
harvest.  When  that  time  of  harvest  has  come, 
when  the  deepest  foundations  of  all  the  religions 
of  the  world  have  been  laid  free  and  restored,  who 
knows  but  that  those  very  foundations  may  serve 
once  more,  like  the  catacombs,  or  like  the  crypts 
beneath  our  old  cathedrals,  as  a  place  of  refuge  for 
those  who,  to  whatever  creed  they  may  belong, 
long  for  something  better,  purer,  older,  and  truer 
than  what  they  can  find  in  the  statutable  sacrifices, 
services  and  sermons  of  the  days  in  which  their 
lot  on  earth  has  been  cast;  some  who  have  learnt 
to  put  away  childish  things,  call  them  genealogies, 
legends,  miracles,  or  oracles,  but  who  cannot  part 
with  the  childlike  faith  of  their  heart.  Each 
believer  may  bring  down  with  him  into  that  quiet 
crypt  what  he  values  most,  his  own  pearl  of  great 
price — the  Hindu  his  innate  disbelief  in  this  world, 
his  unhesitating  belief  in  another  world — the 
Buddhist  his  perception  of  an  eternal  law,  his  sub- 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  169 

mission  to  it,  his  gentleness,  his  pity — the  Mahom- 
medan,  if  nothing  else,  his  sobriety — the  Jew  his 
clinging,  through  good  and  evil  days,  to  the  one 
God,  who  loveth  righteousness  and  whose  name  is 
"I  am" — the  Christian  that  which  is  better  than 
all,  if  those  who  doubt  it  would  only  try  it,  our  love 
of  God,  call  Him  what  you  like,  the  Infinite,  the 
Invisible,  the  Immortal,  the  Father,  the  highest 
Self,  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in  all,  mani- 
fested in  our  love  of  man,  our  love  of  the  living, 
our  love  of  the  dead,  our  living  and  undying  love. 

Ibid. 

If  we  see  the  same  doctrines,  sometimes  uttered 
even  in  the  very  same  words,  by  the  Apostles,  and 
by  what  people  call  the  false  prophets  of  the 
heathen  world,  we  need  not  grudge  them  these 
precious  pearls.  When  two  religions  say  the  same 
thing,  it  is  not  always  the  same  thing,  but  even  if  it 
is,  should  we  not  rather  rejoice  and  try  with  all  our 
might  to  add  to  what  may  be  called  the  heavenly 
dowry  of  the  human  race,  the  common  stock  of 
truth  which,  as  we  are  told,  is  not  far  from  every 
one  of  us,  if  only  we  feel  after  it  and  find  it. 

Gifford  Lectures,  I. 

Religion,  when  looked  upon  not  as  supernatural, 
but  as  thoroughly  natural  to  man,  has  assumed  a 


170 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


new  meaning  and  a  higher  dignity  when 
studied  as  an  integral  part  of  that  historical 
evolution  which  has  made  man  what  he  is, 
and  what  from  the  very  first  he  was  meant 
to  be.  Is  it  no  comfort  to  know  that  at  no 
time  and  in  no  part  of  the  world,  has  God 
left  Himself  without  witness,  that  the  hand 
of  God  was  nowhere  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  outstretched  hands  of  babes  and  sucklings; 
nay,  that  it  was  from  those  rude  utterances  out  of 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings,  that  is,  of 
savages  and  barbarians,  that  has  been  perfected 
in  time  the  true  praise  of  God  ?  To  have  looked 
for  growth  and  evolution  in  history  as  well 
as  in  nature  is  no  blame,  and  has  proved 
no  loss  to  the  present  or  to  the  last  century; 
and  if  the  veil  has  as  yet  been  but  little 
withdrawn  from  the  Holy  of  Holies,  those  who 
come  after  us  will  have  learnt  at  least  this 
one  lesson,  that  this  lifting  of  the  veil  which 
was  supposed  to  be  the  privilege  of  priests, 
is  no  longer  considered  as  a  sacrilege,  if  attempted 
by  any  honest  seekers  after  truth.  Ibid. 


Religion  consists  in  the  perception  of  the  Infinite 
under  such  manifestations  as  are  able  to  influence 
the  moral  character  of  man.  Ibid, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  171 

No  opinion  is  true  simply  because  it  has  been 
held  either  by  the  greatest  intellects  or  by  the 
largest  number  of  human  beings  at  different  periods 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  No  one  can  spend 
years  in  the  study  of  the  religions  of  the  world, 
beginning  with  the  lowest  and  ending  with  the 
highest  forms,  no  one  can  watch  the  sincerity  of 
religious  endeavour,  the  warmth  of  religious  feeling, 
the  nobleness  of  religious  conduct,  among  races 
whom  we  are  inclined  to  call  pagan  or  savage, 
without  learning  at  all  events  a  lesson  of  humility. 
Anybody,  be  he  Jew,  Christian,  Mohammedan,  or 
Brahmin,  if  he  has  a  spark  of  modesty  left,  must 
feel  that  it  would  be  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  that 
his  own  religion  alone  should  be  perfect  throughout, 
while  that  of  every  other  believer  should  be  false 
or  wrong  from  beginning  to  end.  Ibid. 


The  more  we  study  the  history  of  the  religions  of 
the  world,  the  clearer  it  becomes  that  there  is  really 
no  religion  which  could  be  called  an  individual 
religion,  in  the  sense  of  a  religion  created,  as  it 
were  de  novo,  or  rather  ab  ovo,  by  one  single  person. 
This  may  seem  strange,  and  yet  it  is  really  most 
natural.  Religion,  like  language,  is  evervwhere 
an  historical  growth,  and  to  invent  a  completely 
new  religion  would  be  as  hopeless  a  task  as  to 


1 72  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

invent  a  completely  new  language.  Nor  do  the 
founders  of  the  great  historical  religions  of  the 
world  ever  claim  this  exclusive  authorship.  On 
the  contrary,  most  of  them  disclaim  in  the  strongest 
terms  the  idea  that  they  have  come  either  to  destroy 
or  to  build  a  completely  new  temple.  Ibid. 


The  whole  world  in  its  wonderful  history  has 
passed  through  the  struggle  for  life,  the  struggle 
for  eternal  life;  and  every  one  of  us,  in  his  own  not 
less  wonderful  history,  has  had  to  pass  through  the 
same  wonderful  struggle:  for,  without  it,  no  re- 
ligion, whatever  its  sacred  books  may  be,  will  find 
in  the  human  heart  that  soil  in  which  alone  it  can 
strike  root  and  on  which  alone  it  can  grow  and  bear 
fruit.  We  must  all  have  our  own  bookless  religion, 
if  the  Sacred  Books,  whatever  they  may  be,  are  to 
find  a  safe  and  solid  foundation  within  ourselves. 
No  temple  can  stand  without  that  foundation,  and 
it  is  because  that  foundation  is  so  often  neglected 
that  the  walls  of  the  temple  become  unsafe  and 
threaten  to  fall.  Ibid. 


The  heart  and  mind  and  soul  of  man  are  the 
same  under  every  sky,  in  all  the  varying  circum- 
stances of  human  life;    and  it  would  be  awful  to 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  173 

believe  that  any  human  beings  should  have  been 
deprived  of  that  light  "which  lighteth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world."  It  is  that  light  whi<  h 
lighteth  every  man,  and  which  has  lighted  all  the 
religions  of  the  world,  call  them  bookless  or 
literate,  human  or  divine,  natural  or  supernatural, 
which  alone  can  dispel  the  darkness  of  doubt  and 
fear  that  has  come  over  the  world.  What  our  age 
wants  more  than  anything  else  is  Natural  Religion. 
Whatever  meaning  different  theologians  may  at- 
tach to  Supernatural  Religion,  history  teaches  us 
that  nothing  is  so  natural  as  the  supernatural.  But 
the  supernatural  must  always  be  superimposed  on 
the  natural.  Supernatural  religion  without  natural 
religion  is  a  house  built  on  sand,  and  when,  as  in 
our  days,  the  rain  of  doubt  descends,  and  the  floods 
of  criticism  come,  and  the  winds  of  unbelief  and  de- 
spair blow,  and  beat  upon  that  house,  that  house  will 
fall  because  it  was  not  founded  on  the  rock,  of  book- 
less religion,  of  natural  religion,  of  eternal  religion. 

Ibid. 

Every  religion,  being  the  property  of  the  young 
and  the  old,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  must  always 
be  a  kind  of  compromise,  and,  while  protesting 
against  real  corruptions  and  degradations,  we 
must  learn  to  bear  with  those  whose  language 
differs  from  our  own,  and  trust  that  in  spite  of  the 


i74  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

tares  which  have  sprung  up  during  the  night,  some 
grains  of  wheat  will  ripen  toward  the  harvest  in 
every  honest  heart.  Gifford  Lectures,  II. 


In  all  the  fundamentals  of  religion  we  are  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  our  neighbours,  neither  more 
wise  nor  more  unwise  than  all  the  members  of  that 
great  family  who  have  been  taught  to  know  them- 
selves as  children  of  one  and  the  same  Father  in 
Heaven.  Ibid. 


What  can  a  study  of  Natural  Religion  teach  us  ? 
Why,  it  teaches  us  that  religion  is  natural,  is  real, 
is  inevitable,  is  universal.  Is  that  nothing  ?  Is  it 
nothing  to  know  that  there  is  a  solid  rock  on  which 
all  religion,  call  it  natural  or  supernatural,  is 
founded  ?  Is  it  nothing  to  learn  from  the  annals  of 
history  that  God  has  not  left  Himself  without  wit- 
ness in  that  He  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from 
heaven  and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts,  and 
the  hearts  of  the  whole  human  race,  with  food  and 
gladness?"  Ibid. 


While  on  the  one  side  a  study  of  Natural  Religion 
teaches  us  that  much  of  what  we  are  inclined  to 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  175 

class  as  natural,  to  accept  as  a  matter  of  course,  is 
in  reality  full  of  meaning,  is  full  of  God,  is  in  fact 
truly  miraculous,  it  also  opens  our  eyes  to  another 
fact,  namely  that  many  things  we  are  inclined 
to  class  as  supernatural  are  in  reality  perfectly 
natural,  perfectly  intelligible,  nay,  inevitable,  in 
the  growth  of  every  religion.  Ibid. 


The  real  coincidences  between  all  the  religions 
of  the  world  teach  us  that  all  religions  spring  from 
the  same  soil — the  human  heart — that  they  all  look 
to  the  same  ideals,  and  that  they  are  all  surrounded 
by  the  same  dangers  and  difficulties.  Much  that 
is  represented  to  us  as  supernatural  in  the  annals 
of  the  ancient  religions  of  the  world  becomes  per- 
fectly natural  from  this  point  of  view.  Ibid. 


To  those  who  see  no  difficulties  in  their  own 
religion,  the  study  of  other  religions  will  create  no 
new  difficulties.  It  will  only  help  them  to  appreciate 
more  fully  what  they  already  possess.  For  with  all 
that  I  have  said  in  order  to  show  that  other  religions 
also  contain  all  that  is  necessary  for  salvation,  it 
would  be  simply  dishonest  on  my  part  were  I  to 
hide  my  conviction  that  the  religion  taught  by 
Christ,  free  as  yet  from  all  ecclesiastical  fences  and 


176  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

intrenchments,  is  the  best,  the  purest,  the  truest 
religion  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Ibid. 


To  expect  that  religion  could  ever  be  placed 
again  beyond  the  reach  of  scientific  treatment  or 
honest  criticism,  shows  an  utter  misapprehension 
of  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  would,  after  all,  be 
no  more  than  to  set  up  private  judgment  against 
private  judgment.  If  the  inalienable  rights  of 
private  judgment,  that  is,  of  honesty  and  truth, 
were  more  generally  recognised,  the  character  of 
religious  controversy  would  at  once  be  changed. 
It  is  restriction  that  provokes  resentment,  and 
thus  embitters  all  discussions  on  religious 
subjects.  Gifford  Lectures,  III. 


So  far  from  being  dishonest,  the  distinction 
between  a  higher  and  a  lower  form  of  religion  is 
in  truth  the  only  honest  recognition  of  the  real- 
ities of  life.  If  to  a  philosophic  mind  religion  is 
a  spiritual  love  of  God  and  the  joy  of  his  full 
consciousness  of  the  spirit  of  God  within  him, 
what  meaning  can  such  words  convey  to  the 
millions  of  human  beings  who  nevertheless  want 
a  religion,  a  positive,  authoritative,  or  revealed 
religion,  to  teach  them  that  there  is  a  God,  and 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  177 

that  His  commands  must  be  obeyed  without  ques- 
tioning ?  Ibid. 


People  ask  what  can  be  gained  by  a  compre- 
hensive study  of  religions,  by  showing  that,  as 
yet,  no  race  has  been  discovered  without  some 
word  for  what  is  not  visible,  not  finite,  not  human, 
for  something  superhuman  and  divine.  Some 
theologians  go  even  so  far  as  to  resent  the  dis- 
covery of  the  universality  of  such  a  belief.  They 
are  anxious  to  prove  that  human  reason  alone 
could  never  have  arrived  at  a  conception  of  God. 
They  would  much  rather  believe  that  God  has 
left  Himself  without  witness  than  that  a  belief 
in  something  higher  than  the  Finite  could  spring 
up  in  the  human  heart  from  gratitude  to  Him 
who  gave  us  rain  from  heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons, 
filling  our  hearts  with  food  and  gladness.     Ibid. 


Physical  religion,  beginning  in  a  belief  in  agents 
behind  the  great  phenomena  of  nature,  reached 
its  highest  point  when  it  had  led  the  human  mind 
to  a  belief  in  one  Supreme  Agent  or  God,  what- 
ever His  name  might  be.  It  was  supposed  that 
this  God  could  be  implored  by  prayers  and  pleased 
by  sacrifices.     He  was  called  the  Father  of  gods 


178  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

and  men.  Yet  even  in  His  highest  conception 
He  was  no  more  than  what  Cardinal  Newman 
defined  God  to  be.  "I  mean  by  the  Supreme 
Being,"  he  wrote,  "one  who  is  simply  self-depend- 
ent, and  the  only  being  who  is  such.  I  mean  that 
He  created  all  things  out  of  nothing,  and  could 
destroy  them  as  easily  as  He  made  them,  and  that, 
in  consequence,  He  is  separated  from  them  by  an 
abyss,  and  incommunicable  in  all  His  attributes. " 
This  abyss  separating  God  from  man  remains  at 
the  end  of  Physical  Religion.  It  constitutes  its 
inherent  weakness.  But  this  very  weakness  be- 
comes in  time  a  source  of  strength,  for  from  it 
sprang  a  yearning  for  better  things.  Even  the 
God  of  the  Jews,  in  His  unapproachable  majesty, 
though  He  might  be  revered  and  loved  by  man 
during  his  life  on  earth,  could  receive  as  it  were 
a  temporary  allegiance  only,  for  "the  dead  cannot 
praise  God,  neither  any  that  go  down  into  dark- 
ness!" God  was  immortal,  a  man  was  mortal; 
and  Physical  Religion  could  not  throw  a  bridge 
over  the  abyss  that  separated  the  two.  Real 
religion,  however,  requires  more  than  a  belief  in 
God;  it  requires  a  belief  in  man  also,  and  an 
intimate  relation  between  God  and  man,  at  all 
events  in  a  life  to  come.  There  is  in  man  an 
irrepressible  desire  for  continued  existence.  It 
shows  itself  in  life  in  what  we  may  call  self  defence. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  179 

It  shows  itself  at  the  end  of  life  and  at  the  approach 
of  death,  in  the  hope  of  immortality.  Ibid. 


So  long  as  we  look  on  the  history  of  the  human 
race  as  something  that  might  or  might  not  have 
been,  we  cannot  wonder  that  the  student  of 
religion  should  prefer  to  form  his  opinions  of  the 
nature  of  religion  and  the  laws  of  its  growth  from 
the  masterpiece  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  "Summa 
Sacra  Theologian,"  rather  than  from  the  "Sacred 
Books  of  the  East."  But  when  we  have 
learned  to  recognise  in  history  the  realisation 
of  a  rational  purpose,  when  we  have  learnt 
to  look  upon  it  as  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word  a  Divine  Drama,  the  plot  revealed  in 
it  ought  to  assume  in  the  eyes  of  a  philosopher 
also  a  meaning  and  a  value  far  beyond  the 
speculations  of  even  the  most  enlightened  and 
logical  theologians.  Gi  fjord  Lectures,  IV. 


The  question  is  whether  there  is,  or  whether 
there  is  not,  hidden  in  every  one  of  the  sacred 
books,  something  that  could  lift  up  the  human 
heart  from  this  earth  to  a  higher  world,  some- 
thing that  could  make  man  feel  the  omnipresence 
of  a  higher  Power,  something  that  could   make 


180  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

him  shrink  from  evil  and  incline  to  good, 
something  to  sustain  him  in  the  short  jour- 
ney through  life,  with  its  bright  moments 
of  happiness,  and  its  long  hours  of  terrible 
distress.  Preface  to  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 


It  has  been  truly  said,  and  most  emphatically, 
by  Doctor  Newman,  that  neither  a  belief  in  God 
by  itself,  nor  a  belief  in  the  soul  by  itself,  would 
constitute  religion,  and  that  real  religion  is  founded 
on  a  true  perception  of  the  relation  of  the  soul  to 
God,  and  of  God  to  the  soul. 

Gifford  Lectures,  IV. 

It  may  be  truly  said  that  the  founders  of  the 
religions  of  the  world  have  all  been  bridge  builders. 
As  soon  as  the  existence  of  a  beyond,  of  a  Heaven 
above  the  earth,  of  Powers  above  us  and  beneath 
us,  had  been  recognised,  a  great  gulf  seemed  to 
be  fixed  between  what  was  called  by  various 
names,  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly,  the  material 
and  the  spiritual,  the  phenomenal  and  noumenal, 
or  best  of  all,  the  visible  and  invisible  world,  and  it 
was  the  chief  object  of  religion  to  unite  these  two 
worlds  again,  whether  by  the  arches  of  hope  and 
fear,  or    by  the  iron  chains  of  logical  syllogisms. 

Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  181 

Religion,  in  order  to  be  real  religion,  a 
man's  own  religion,  must  be  searched  for, 
must  be  discovered,  must  be  conquered. 
If  it  is  simply  inherited,  or  accepted  as 
a  matter  of  course,  it  often  happens  that 
in  later  years  it  falls  away,  and  has  either 
to  be  reconquered,  or  to  be  replaced  by  another 
religion.  Autobiography. 


Religion  is  growth,  never  finished.  From  the 
lowest  to  the  highest  stages  it  is  growth,  not  willed 
only,  nor  given  only,  but  both.  The  lowest  stages 
may  seem  very  imperfect  to  us,  but  they  are  all 
the  more  important.  Language  and  mythology 
show  us  the  old  path  on  which  man  travelled  from 
Nature  to  God.  MS. 


There  is  no  lesson  which  at  the  present  time 
seems  more  important  than  to  learn  that  in  every 
religion  there  are  precious  grains:  that  we  must 
draw  in  every  religion  a  broad  distinction  between 
what  is  essential  and  what  is  not,  between  the 
eternal  and  the  temporary,  between  the  divine 
and  the  human,  and  that  though  the  non- 
essential may  fill  many  volumes,  the  essential 
can    often    be    comprehended    in    a    few    words, 


i82  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

but   words    on  which  "hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets." 

Preface  to  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 


Religions  were  meant  to  be  many  like  languages. 
To  us  one  language  for  the  whole  human  race 
would  seem  to  be  far  better;  but  it  was  not  to  be. 
Each  language  was  to  be  a  school  for  each  race, 
a  talent  committed  to  each  nation.  And  so  it  is 
with  religion.  There  is  truth  in  all  of  them,  the 
whole  truth  in  none.  Let  each  one  cherish  his 
own,  purify  his  own,  and  throw  away  what  is 
dead  and  decaying.  But  to  give  up  one's  religion 
is  like  giving  up  one's  life.  Even  the  lowest  sav- 
age must  keep  his  own  old  faith  in  God,  when  he 
becomes  converted  to  Christianity,  or  he  will  have 
lost  the  living  and  life-giving  root  of  his  faith.  If 
people  would  only  learn  to  look  for  what  is  good 
in  all  religions,  how  far  more  beautiful  the  world 
would  appear  in  their  eyes.  They  dig  hard  enough 
to  get  the  ore  from  out  a  mine,  they  sift  it,  smelt 
it,  purify  it,  and  then  keep  the  small  pieces  of 
gold  they  have  got  with  all  this  trouble,  forgetting 
the  scoria  and  all  the  refuse.  That  is  what  we 
must  do  as  students  of  religion — but  we  do  the 
very  contrary,  we  hug  the  sconce  and  shut  our 
eyes   to   the   glittering   rays   of  gold.     Jews   and 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  183 

Christians  are  worse  in  that  respect  than  all  other 
people.  It  may  be  because  their  religions  are 
freer  from  human  impurities  than  all  other  re- 
ligions. But  why  should  that  make  them  blind 
to  what  is  really  good  in  other  religions;  why 
should  it  blind  them  so  much  that  they  look  upon 
other  religions  as  the  work  of  the  Devil  ?  The 
power  of  evil  has  had  its  work  in  all  religions, 
our  own  not  excepted — but  the  power  of  goodness 
prevails  everywhere.  Till  we  know  that,  life  and 
history  seem  intolerable.  It  would  not  put  an 
end  to  missionary  labour;  it  would  only  make  it 
more  a  labour  of  love,  less  painful  to  those  whom 
we  wish  to  win,  not  away  from  their  God,  but 
back  to  their  God,  Him  whom  they  ignorantly 
worship,  and  whom  we  should  declare  unto  them 
— according  to  our  own  light,  such  as  it  is,  less 
dark  than  theirs  on  many  points,  but  yet  dark, 
as  those  know  best  who,  like  St.  Paul,  have  striven 
hardest  to  look  through  the  glass  of  our  own  weak 
human  mind.  "*£• 


If  people  would  only  learn  to  see  that  there  is 
really  a  religion  beyond  all  religions,  that  each 
man  must  have  his  own  religion  which  he  has 
conquered  for  himself,  and  that  we  must  learn  to 
tolerate  religion  wherever  we  find  it.     Christianity 


iS4  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

would  be  a  perfect  religion,  if  it  did  not  go  beyond 
the  simple  words  of  Christ,  and  if,  even  in  these 
words,  we  made  full  allowance  for  the  time  and 
place  and  circumstances  in  which  they  were 
spoken,  that  is,  if  we  simply  followed  Christ  where 
He  wishes  us  to  follow  Him.  We  have  gone  far 
beyond  those  times  and  circumstances  in  many 
things,  but  in  what  is  most  essential  we  are  still 
far  behind  the  teaching  of  Christ.  How  many 
call  themselves  Christians  who  have  no  idea  how 
difficult  it  is  to  be  a  Christian,  a  follower  of  Christ. 
It  is  easy  enough  to  repeat  creeds,  and  to  work 
ourselves  into  a  frame  of  mind  when  miracles 
seem  most  easy.  MS. 


It  was  the  duty  of  the  Apostles  and  of  the  early 
Christians  in  general  to  stand  forth  in  the  name 
of  the  only  true  God,  and  to  prove  to  the  world 
that  their  God  had  nothing  in  common  with  the 
idols  worshipped  at  Athens  and  Ephesus.  It  was 
the  duty  of  the  early  converts  to  forswear  all 
allegiance  to  their  former  deities,  and  if  they 
could  not  at  once  bring  themselves  to  believe  that 
the  gods  whom  they  had  worshipped  had  no 
existence  at  all,  they  were  naturally  led  on  to 
ascribe  to  them  a  kind  of  demoniacal  nature,  and 
to  curse  them  as  the  offspring  of  that  new  prin- 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  185 

ciple  of  Evil  with  which  they  had  become  ac- 
quainted in  the  doctrines  of  the  early  Church. 
.  .  .  Through  the  whole  of  St.  Augustine's 
works,  and  through  all  the  works  of  earlier  Chris- 
tian divines,  there  runs  the  same  spirit  of  hostility 
blinding  them  to  all  that  may  be  good,  and  true, 
and  sacred,  and  magnifying  all  that  is  bad,  false, 
and  corrupt,  in  the  ancient  religions  of  mankind. 
Only  the  Apostles  and  their  immediate  disciples 
venture  to  speak  in  a  different,  and,  no  doubt, 
in  a  more  truly  Christian  spirit,  of  the  old  tonus 
of  worship.  .  .  .  What  can  be  more  con- 
vincing, more  powerful,  than  the  language  of 
St.  Paul  at  Athens  ?  Science  of  Language. 


Those  who  believe  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  He  created  heaven  and  earth,  and  that  He 
ruleth  the  world  by  His  unceasing  providence, 
cannot  believe  that  millions  of  human  beings,  all 
created  like  ourselves  in  the  image  of  God,  were, 
in  their  time  of  ignorance,  so  utterly  abandoned 
that  their  whole  religion  was  falsehood,  their 
whole  worship  a  farce,  their  whole  life  a  mockery. 
An  honest  and  independent  study  of  the  religions 
of  the  world  will  teach  us  that  it  was  not  so  .  .  . 
that  there  is  no  religion  which  does  not  contain 
some  grains  of  truth.     Nay,  it  will  teach  us  more; 


i86  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

it  will  teach  us  to  see  in  the  history  of  the  ancient 
religions,  more  clearly  than  anywhere  else,  the 
Divine  education  of  the  human  race.  Ibid. 


The  Divine,  if  it  is  to  reveal  itself  at  all  to  us, 
will  best  reveal  itself  in  our  own  human  form. 
However  far  the  human  may  be  from  the  Divine, 
nothing  on  earth  is  nearer  to  God  than  man, 
nothing  on  earth  more  godlike  than  man.  And 
as  man  grows  from  childhood  to  old  age,  the  idea 
of  the  Divine  must  grow  with  us  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  from  grace  to  grace.  A  religion 
which  is  not  able  thus  to  grow  and  live  with  us 
as  we  grow  and  live  is  dead  already.  Definite 
and  unvarying  uniformity,  so  far  from  being  a 
sign  of  honesty  and  life,  is  always  a  sign  of  dis- 
honesty and  death.  Every  religion,  if  it  is  to  be 
a  bond  between  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  old 
and  the  young,  must  be  pliant,  must  be  high  and 
deep  and  broad;  bearing  all  things,  believing  all 
things,  hoping  all  things,  enduring  all  things. 
The  more  it  is  so  the  greater  its  vitality,  the 
greater  the  strength  and  warmth  of  its  embrace. 

Hibbert  Lectures. 


REVELATION 

True  inspiration  is,  and  always  has  been,  the 
spirit  of  truth  within,  and  this  is  hut  another 
name  for  the  spirit  of  God.  It  is  truth  that  makes 
inspiration,  not  inspiration  that  makes  truth. 
Whoever  knows  what  truth  is  knows  also  what 
inspiration  is:  not  only  tbeopneustos,  blown  into 
the  soul  by  God,  but  the  very  voice  of  God,  the 
real  presence  of  God,  the  only  presence  in  which 
we,  as  human  beings,  can  ever  perceive  Him. 

Autobiography. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  idea  of  revelation  that 
excludes  progress,  for  whatever  definition  of  rev- 
elation we  may  adopt,  it  always  represents  a  com- 
munication between  the  Divine  on  one  side  and 
the  Human  on  the  other.  Let  us  grant  that  the 
Divine  element  in  revelation,  that  is,  whatever  of 
truth  there  is  in  revelation,  is  immutable,  yet  the 
human  element,  the  recipient,  must  always  be 
liable  to  the  accidents  and  infirmities  of  human 
nature.  That  human  element  can  never  be  elim- 
inated in  any  religion.  ...  To  ignore  that 
human   element   in   all   religions   is   like   ignoring 

187 


188  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

the  eye  as  the  recipient  and  determinant  of  the 
colours  of  light.  We  know  more  of  the  sun  than 
our  forefathers,  though  the  same  sun  shone  on 
them  that  shines  on  us;  and  if  astronomy  has 
benefited  by  its  telescopes  .  .  .  theology  also 
ought  not  to  despise  whatever  can  strengthen  the 
farsightedness  of  human  reason  in  its  endeavour 
to  gain  a  truer  and  purer  idea  of  the  Divine.  A 
veil  will  always  remain.  But  as  in  every  other 
pursuit,  so  in  religion  also,  we  want  less  and  less 
of  darkness,  more  and  more  of  light;  we  want, 
call  it  life,  or  growth,  or  development,  or  progress; 
we  do  not  want  mere  rest,  mere  stagnation,  mere 
death.  Gifjord  Lectures,  I. 


It  was  the  sense  of  an  overpowering  truth  which 
led  to  the  admission  of  a  revelation.  But  while 
in  the  beginning  truth  made  revelation,  it  soon 
came  to  pass  that  revelation  was  supposed  to 
make  truth.  When  we  see  this  happening  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  when  we  can  watch  the  psycho- 
logical progress  which  leads  in  the  most  natural 
way  to  a  belief  in  supernatural  inspiration,  it  will 
hardly  be  said  that  an  historical  study  of  religion 
may  be  useful  to  the  antiquarian,  but  cannot  help 
us  to  solve  the  burning  questions  of  the  day. 

Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  189 

I  believe  in  one  revelation  only — the  revelation 
within  us,  which  is  much  better  than  any  revela- 
tions which  come  from  without.  Why  should 
we  look  for  God  and  listen  for  His  voice  outside 
us  only,  and  not  within  us  ?  Where  is  the  temple 
of  God,  or  the  true  kingdom  of  God  ?         Life. 


There  are  Christian  mystics  who  would  not 
place  internal  revelation,  or  the  voice  of  God 
within  the  heart,  so  far  below  external  revelation. 
To  those  who  know  the  presence  of  God  within 
the  heart,  this  revelation  is  far  more  real  than 
any  other  can  be.  They  hold  with  St.  Paul  that 
man  is  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  the  temple 
of  God,  and  that  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  within 
him;  nay,  they  go  even  further,  and  both  as 
Christians  and  as  mystics  they  cling  to  the  belief 
that  all  men  are  one  in  the  Father  and  the  Son,  as 
the  Father  is  in  the  Son,  and  the  Son  in  the  Father. 
There  is  no  conflict  in  their  minds  between 
Christian  doctrine  and  mystic  doctrine.  '1  hey 
are  one  and  the  same  in  character,  the  one  im- 
parted through  Christ  on  earth,  the  other  imparted 
through  the  indwelling  spirit  of  God,  which  again 
is  Christ,  as  born  within  us.  The  Gospel  of  St. 
John  is  full  of  passages  to  which  the  Christian 
mystic  clings,  and  by  which  he  justifies  his  belief 


190 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


in  the  indwelling  spirit  of  God,  or  as  he  also  calls 
it,  the  birth  of  Christ  in  the  human  soul. 

Gifford  Lectures,  II. 

I  cannot  connect  any  meaning  with  a  primeval 
revelation,  or  with  an  original  knowledge  of  God. 
A  knowledge  of  God  is  surely  at  all  times  impossi- 
ble; man  can  only  trust,  he  cannot  know.  He 
can  feel  the  Infinite,  and  the  Divine,  he  can  never 
class  it  or  subdue  it  by  knowledge.  The  question 
seems  to  me,  how  our  unconscious  relation  to  God, 
which  must  be  there  and  can  never  be  destroyed, 
becomes  gradually  more  and  more  conscious,  and 
that  is  what  one  can  best  learn  to  understand  in 
the  history  of  the  various  religions  of  the  world — 
so  many  voyages  of  discovery,  each  full  of  sufferings 
and  heroic  feats,  all  looking  toward  the  same  Pole, 
each  to  be  judged  by  itself,  none,  I  believe,  to  be 
condemned  altogether.  MS. 


To  assume  that  every  word,  every  letter,  every 
parable,  every  figure  was  whispered  to  the  authors 
of  the  Gospels,  is  certainly  an  absurdity,  and 
rests  only  on  human  .  .  .  authority.  But 
the  true  revelation,  the  real  truth,  as  it  was  already 
anticipated  by  the  Greek  philosophers,  slowly 
accepted    by  Jews,  like  Philo  and  the  contempo- 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  191 

raries  of  Jesus,  taught  by  men  like  Clement  and 
Origen  in  the  ancient  Greek  Church,  and,  in 
fine,  realised  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  sealed  by 
His  death,  is  no  absurdity:  it  is  for  every  thinking 
Christian  the  eternal  life,  or  the  Kingdom  of  ( rod 
on  earth,  which  Jesus  wished  to  establish,  and  in 
part  did  establish.  To  become  a  citizen  of  this 
Kingdom  is  the  highest  that  man  can  attain,  but 
it  is  not  attained  merely  through  baptism  and 
confirmation;  it  must  be  gained  in  earnest  spiritual 
conflict.  Silesian  Horseherd. 


THE   RIG-VEDA 

The  Veda  alone  of  all  works  I  know  treats  of  a 
genesis  of  God-consciousness,  compared  to  which 
the  Theogony  of  Hesiod  is  like  a  wornout  creature. 
We  see  it  grow  slowly  and  gradually  with  all  its 
contradictions,  its  sudden  terrors,  its  amazements, 
and  its  triumphs.  As  God  reveals  His  Being  in 
Nature  in  her  order,  her  indestructibility,  in  the 
eternal  victory  of  light  over  darkness,  of  spring 
over  winter,  in  the  eternally  returning  course  of 
the  sun  and  the  stars,  so  man  has  gradually  spelt 
out  of  nature  the  Being  of  God,  and  after  trying 
a  thousand  names  for  God  in  vain  we  find  Him 
in  the  Veda  already  saying:  "They  call  him 
Indra,  Mitra,  Varuna;  then  they  call  him  the 
Heavenly,  the  bird  with  beautiful  wings;  that 
which  is  One  they  call  in  various  ways."  .  .  . 
The  belief  in  immortality  is  only  the  other  side,  as  it 
were,  of  the  God-consciousness,  and  both  are 
originally  natural  to  the  Aryan  race.         Life. 


192 


SCIENCE 

Every  true  Science  is  like  a  hardy  Alpine  guide 
that  leads  us  on  from  the  narrow,  through  it  may 
be  the  more  peaceful  and  charming  valleys  of  our 
preconceived  opinions,  to  higher  points,  apparently 
less  attractive,  nay,  often  disappointing  for  a 
time,  till,  after  hours  of  patient  and  silent 
climbing,  we  look  round,  and  see  a  new  world 
around  us.        Chips  from  a  German  fVorksbop. 


A  new  horizon  has  opened,  our  eyes  see 
far  and  wide,  and  as  the  world  beneath  us 
grows  wider  and  larger,  our  own  hearts 
seem  to  grow  wider  and  larger,  and  we 
learn  to  embrace  the  far  and  distant,  and  all 
that  before  seemed  strange  and  indifferent, 
with  a  warmer  recognition  and  a  deeper  human 
sympathy;  we  form  wider  concepts,  we  perceive 
higher  truths.  H>iJ. 


What  is  natural  is  divine,  what  is  supernatural 
is  human.  Gifjord  Lectures,  I. 

193 


194 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


Man  is  the  measurer  of  all  things,  and  what  is 
Science  but  the  reflection  of  the  outer  world  on 
the  mirror  of  the  mind,  growing  more  perfect, 
more  orderly,  more  definite,  more  great,  with 
every  generation  ?  To  attempt  to  study  nature 
without  studying  man  is  as  impossible  as  to  study 
light  without  studying  the  eye.  I  have  no  mis- 
givings, therefore,  that  the  lines  on  which  this 
College  [Mason  Science  College]  is  founded  will 
ever  become  so  narrow  as  to  exclude  the  science 
of  man,  and  the  science  of  that  which  makes  man, 
the  science  of  language,  and,  what  is  really  the 
same,  the  science  of  thought.  And  where  can  we 
study  the  science  of  thought,  that  most  wonderful 
instance  of  development,  except  in  the  languages 
and  literatures  of  the  past  ?  How  are  we  to  do 
justice  to  our  ancestors  except  by  letting  them 
plead  their  own  case  in  their  own  language  ? 
Literary  culture  can  far  better  dispense  with 
physical  science  than  physical  science  with  literary 
culture,  though  nothing  is  more  satisfactory  than 
a  perfect  combination  of  the  two.  Life. 


THE  SELF 

As  behind  the  various  gods  of  nature,  one 
supreme  deity  was  at  last  discovered  in  India;  tin 
Brahmans  imagined  that  they  perceived  behind 
the  different  manifestations  of  feeling,  thought, 
and  will  also,  a  supreme  power  which  they  called 
Atma,  or  Self,  and  of  which  the  intellectual  powers 
or  faculties  were  but  the  outward  manifestations. 
This  led  to  a  philosophy  which  took  the  place 
of  religion,  and  recognised  in  the  Self  the  only 
true  being,  the  unborn  and  therefore  immortal 
element  in  man.  A  step  further  led  to  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  original  identity  of  the  subjective  Self  in 
man,  and  the  objective  Self  in  nature,  and  thus, from 
an  Indian  point  of  view,  to  a  solution  of  all  the 
riddles  of  the  world.  The  first  commandment  of  all 
philosophy,  "Know thyself,"  became  in  the  philos- 
ophy of  the  Upanishads, "  Know  thyself  as  the  Self," 
or,  if  we  translate  it  into  religious  language,  "  Know 
that  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God." 

Gifford  Lectures ,  /. 

The  death  of  a  child   is  as  if  the  flash  of  the 
Divine   eye   had   turned    quickly   away   from    the 

i95 


196  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

mirror  of  this  world,  before  the  human  conscious- 
ness woke  up  and  thought  it  recognised  itself  in 
the  mirror,  often  only  to  perceive  for  a  moment, 
just  as  it  closes  its  eyes  for  the  last  time,  that  that 
which  it  took  for  itself  was  the  shadow  or  reflection 
of  its  eternal  Self.  Life. 


A  man  need  not  go  into  a  cave  because  he  has 
found  his  true  Self;  he  may  live  and  act  like  every- 
body else;  he  is  "living  but  free."  All  remains 
just  the  same,  except  the  sense  of  unchangeable, 
imperishable  self  which  lifts  him  above  the 
phenomenal  self.  He  knows  he  is  wearing  clothes, 
that  is  all.  If  a  man  does  not  see  it,  if  some  of  his 
clothes  stick  to  him  like  his  very  skin,  if  he  fears 
he  might  lose  his  identity  by  not  being  a  male 
instead  of  a  female,  by  not  being  English  instead 
of  German,  by  not  being  a  child  instead  of  a  man, 
he  must  wait  and  work  on.  Good  works  lead  to 
quietness  of  mind,  and  quietness  of  mind  to  true 
self  knowledge.  Is  it  so  very  little  to  be  only 
Self,  to  be  the  subject  that  can  resist,  i.  e., 
perceive  the  whole  universe,  and  turn  it  into 
his  object  ?  Can  we  wish  for  more  than 
what  we  are,  lookers  on — resisting  what  tries  to 
crush  us,  call  it  force,  or  evil,  or  anything  else  ? 

Ibid. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  197 

The  impression  made  on  me  by  the  look  of  a 
child  who  is  not  yet  conscious  of  himself  and  of  the 
world  round  him,  is  that  of  still  undisturbed 
godliness.  Only  when  self-consciousness  wakes 
little  by  little,  through  pleasure  or  pain,  when  the 
spirit  accustoms  itself  to  its  bodily  covering,  when 
man  begins  to  say  /  and  the  world  to  call  things 
his,  then  the  full  separation  of  the  human  self 
from  the  Divine  begins,  and  it  is  only  after  long 
struggles  that  the  light  of  true  self-consciousness 
sooner  or  later  breaks  through  the  clouds  of 
earthly  semblances,  and  makes  us  again  like 
the  little  children  "of  whom  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. "  In  God  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being;  that  is  the  sum  of  all  human  wisdom,  and  he 
who  does  not  find  it  here  will  find  it  in  another  life. 
All  else  that  we  learn  on  earth,  be  it  the  history  of 
nature  or  of  mankind,  is  for  this  end  alone,  to 
show  us  everywhere  the  presence  of  a  Divine  pro- 
vidence, and  to  lead  us  through  the  knowledge  of 
the  history  of  the  human  spirit  to  the  knowledge 
of  ourselves,  and  through  the  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  nature  to  the  understanding  of  that  human 
nature  to  which  we  are  subjected  in  life. 

Ibid. 

To  my  mind  the  birth  of  a  child  is  not  a  breach 
of  the  law  of  continuity,  but  on  that  very  ground 


198  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

I  must  admit  the  previous  existence  of  the  Self 
that  is  here  born  as  a  child,  and  which  brings 
with  it  into  this  new  order  of  things  simply  its 
self-consciousness,  and  even  that  not  developed 
but  undeveloped  potentia,  in  a  sleep.  When 
afterward  a  child  awakes  to  self-consciousness, 
that  is  really  its  remembrance  of  its  former  exist- 
ence. The  Self  which  it  becomes  conscious  of, 
remember,  is  in  its  essence  not  of  this  world  only, 
but  of  a  former  as  well  as  of  a  future  world.  This 
constitutes  in  fact  the  only  distinct  remembrance 
in  every  human  being  of  a  former  life.  There  are 
besides  indistinct  remembrances  of  his  former 
existence,  viz.,  the  many  dispositions  which  every 
thinking  man  finds  in  himself,  and  which  are  not 
simply  the  result  of  the  impressions  of  this  world 
on  a  so-called  tabula  rasa.  Unless  we  begin  life 
as  tabula  rasa  we  begin  it  as  tabula  preparata,  as 
leukomata,  and  whatever  colour  or  disposition,  or 
talent,  or  temperament,  whatever  there  is  inex- 
plicable in  each  individual,  that  he  will 
perceive,  or  possibly  remember,  as  the  result 
of  the  continuity  between  his  present  and 
former  life.  MS. 


What  then  is  that  which  we  call  Death  ?     Sepa- 
ration of  the  Self  from  a  living  body.     If  so,  does 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


99 


the  body  die  because  the  Self  leaves  it,  or  does  the 
Self  leave  the  body  because  it  dies  ?  What  has 
life  to  do  with  the  Self?  Has  the  Self  which  for 
a  time  dwells  in  a  living  body  anything  to  do  with 
what  we  call  the  life  of  that  body  ?  Does  the  Self 
take  possession  of  a  body  because  it  lives,  or  does 
the  body  live  because  the  Self  has  taken  possession 
of  it  ?  The  difficulty  arises  from  our  vague  con- 
ception of  life.  Life  is  only  a  mode  of  existence. 
Existence  is  possible  without  what  we  call 
life,  not  life  without  existence.  To  live  means 
to  be  able  to  absorb,  but  who  or  what  is 
able  ?  The  Self  exists,  it  is  sentient,  capable 
of  perception  by  becoming  embodied.  It  is 
perceptive  because  sentient,  it  is  conceptive 
because  perceptive.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the 
embodiment.  It  is  there  where  all  philosophy 
becomes  ridiculous.  MS. 


Knowledge  belongs  to  the  Self  alone,  call  it 
what  we  will.  The  nerve  fibres  might  vibrate  as 
often  as  they  pleased,  millions  and  millions  of 
times  in  a  second;  they  could  never  produce  the 
sensation  of  red  if  there  were  no  Self  as  the  receiver 
and  illuminator,  the  translator  of  these  vibrations 
of  ether;  this  Self  that  alone  receives,  alone 
illumines,  alone  knows,  and  of  which  we  can  say 


200  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

nothing  more  than  that  it  exists,  that  it  perceives, 
and  as  the  Indian  philosophers  add,  that  it  is 
blessed,  i.  e.,  that  it  is  complete  in  itself,  serene 
and  eternal.  Silesian  Horseherd. 


SORROW  AND  SUFFERING 

How  mysterious  all  this  suffering  is,  particularly 
when  it  produces  such  prostration  that  it  must 
lose  all  that  elevating  power  which  one  knows 
suffering  does  exercise  in  many  cases.  It  seems 
sometimes  as  if  a  large  debt  of  suffering  had  to  be 
paid  off,  and  that  some  are  chosen  to  pay  a  large, 
very  large,  sum  so  that  others  may  go  free.  We 
have  our  own  burden  to  bear,  but  it  is  a  burden 
that  seems  to  make  other  things  easy  to  bear — it 
strengthens  even  when  it  seems  to  crush.  But 
how  could  one  bear  that  complete  prostration  of 
all  powers  which  must  make  death  seem  so  much 
preferable  to  life.  And  yet  life  goes  on,  and 
people  care  about  a  hundred  little  things,  and 
break  their  hearts  if  they  do  not  get  them.      MS. 


Such  trials  as  you  have  had  to  pass  through  are 
not  sent  without  a  purpose,  and  if  you  say  that 
they  have  changed  your  views  of  life,  such  a 
change  in  a  character  like  yours  can  only  be  a 
change  in  advance,  a  firmer  faith  in  those  truths 
which  have  been  revealed  to  the  dim  sight  of  human 

201 


202  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

nature,  a  stronger  will  to  resist  all  falsehood  and 
tampering  with  the  truth,  and  a  deeper  conviction 
that  we  owe  our  life  to  Him  who  has  given  it,  and 
that  we  must  fight  His  battle  when  He  calls  us  to 
do  it.  MS. 


God  knows  that  we  want  rain  and  storm  as 
much  as  sunshine,  and  He  sends  us  both  as  seems 
best  to  His  love  and  wisdom.  When  all  breaks 
down  He  lifts  us  up.  But  when  we  feel  quite 
crushed  and  forsaken  and  alone,  we  then  feel  the 
real  presence  of  our  truest  Friend,  who  whether 
by  joys  or  sorrows,  is  always  calling  us  to  Him,  and 
leading  us  to  that  true  Home  where  we  shall  find 
Him,  and  in  Him  all  we  loved,  with  Him  all  we 
believed,  and  through  Him  all  we  hoped  for  and 
aspired  to  on  earth.  Our  broken  hearts  are  the 
truest  earnest  of  everlasting  life.  Life. 


We  must  submit,  but  we  must  feel  it  a  great 
blessing  to  be  able  to  submit,  to  be  able  to  trust 
that  infinite  love  which  embraces  us  on  all  sides, 
which  speaks  to  us  through  every  flower  and  every 
worm,  which  always  shows  us  beauty  and  per- 
fection, which  never  mars,  never  destroys,  never 
wastes,  never  deceives,  never  mocks.  MS. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  203 

There  is  but  one  help  and  one  comfort  in  these 
trials,  that  is  to  know  by  whom  they  are  sent.  If 
one  knows  that  nothing  can  happen  to  us  without 
Him,  one  does  not  feel  quite  helpless,  even  under 
the  greatest  terrors  of  this  life.  MS. 


How  little  one  thinks  that  many  trials  and 
afflictions  may  come  upon  us  any  day.  One  lives 
as  if  life  were  to  last  forever,  and  as  if  we  should 
never  part  with  those  who  are  most  dear  to  us. 
Life  would  be  intolerable  were  it  otherwise,  but 
how  little  one  is  prepared  for  what  life  really  is. 

MS. 

Why  is  there  so  much  suffering  in  this  world  ? 
I  cannot  think  it  improves  us  much,  and  yet  it 
must  have  its  purpose.  All  these  are  questions 
far  too  high  for  us — we  are  like  children  and  more 
than  children,  when  we  come  to  think  of  them. 
All  we  know  is  that  where  we  catch  a  glimpse  of 
God's  handiwork,  either  in  the  natural  or  moral 
world,  it  is  so  wonderfully  perfect,  so  beyond  all 
our  measures,  that  we  feel  safe  as  in  a  good  ship, 
however  rough  the  sea  may  be.  Whatever  we 
may  believe  or  hope,  or  wish  for,  will  be  far  ex- 
ceeded by  that  Higher  Will  and  Wisdom  which 
supports  all,  even  us  little  souls.  MS. 


2o4  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

The  sorrows  of  life  are  inevitable,  but  they  are 
hard  to  bear,  for  all  that.  They  would  be  harder 
still  if  we  did  not  see  their  purpose  of  reminding 
us  that  our  true  life  is  not  here,  but  that  we  are 
here  on  a  voyage  that  may  be  calm  or  stormy,  and 
which  is  to  teach  us  what  all  sailors  have  to  learn, 
courage,  perseverance,  kindness,  and  in  the  end 
complete  trust  in  a  Higher  Power.  MS. 


Sorrow  is  necessary  and  good  for  men;  one 
learns  to  understand  that  each  joy  must  be  in- 
demnified by  suffering,  that  each  new  tie  which 
knits  our  hearts  to  this  life  must  be  loosed  again, 
and  the  tighter  and  the  closer  it  was  knit,  the  keener 
the  pain  of  loosening  it.  Should  we  then  attach 
our  hearts  to  nothing,  and  pass  quietly  and  unsym- 
pathetically  through  this  world,  as  if  we  had  nothing 
to  do  with  it  ?  We  neither  could  nor  ought  to  act 
so.  Nature  itself  knits  the  first  tie  between  parents 
and  children,  and  new  ties  through  our  whole  life. 
We  are  not  here  for  reward,  for  the  enjoyment  of 
undistuibed  peace  or  from  mere  accident,  but  for 
trial,  for  improvement,  perhaps  for  punishment; 
for  the  only  union  which  can  secure  the  happiness 
of  men,  the  union  between  our  Self  and  God's 
Self,  is  broken,  or  at  least  obscured,  by  our  birth, 
and  the  highest  object  of  our  life  is  to  find  this 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  205 

bond  again,  to  remain  ever  conscious  of  it  and  hold 
fast  to  it  in  life  and  in  death.  This  rediscovery  of 
the  eternal  union  between  God  and  man  constitutes 
true  religion  among  all  people.  Life. 


Everyone  carries  a  grave  of  lost  hope  in  his  soul, 
but  he  covers  it  over  with  cold  marble,  o»*  with 
green  boughs.  On  sad  days  one  likes  to  go  alone 
to  this  God's  acre  of  the  soul,  and  weep  there,  but 
only  in  order  to  return  full  of  comfort  and  hope 
to  those  who  are  left  to  us.  Ibid. 


The  sorrows  of  life,  like  all  other  things,  pass 
away,  and  the  larger  the  number  who  await  us 
beyond,  the  easier  the  parting  from  those  we  leave 
behind.  Ibid. 


Grief   is    a    sweet    remembrance  of   happiness 
that  was.  MS. 


There  is  the  old  riddle  always  before  me,  why 

was taken  from  me  ?     Human  understanding 

has  no  answer  for  it,  and  yet  I  feel  as  certain  as  I 
can  feel  of  anything  that  as  it  is,  it  is  good,  it  is  best, 


2o6  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

better  than  anything  I  can  wish  for.  One  feels 
one's  own  ignorance  why  what  seems  so  right  and 
natural  should  not  be,  and  yet  one  knows  it  could 
not  be.  One  hides  one's  head  in  the  arms  of  a 
Higher  Power,  a  Friend,  a  Father,  and  more  than 
a  Father.  Wait,  and  you  will  know.  Work,  and 
you  will  be  able  to  bear  it.  MS. 


People  think  that  grief  is  pain,  but  it  is  not  so: 
Grief,  the  absorption  in  the  quiet  recollection  of 
what  was,  but  is  no  longer,  is  a  pleasure,  a  con- 
solation, a  blessing.  MS. 


Those  who  would  comfort  us  by  bidding  us  for- 
get our  grief,  and  join  their  happy  gatherings,  do 
not  know  what  comfort  is.  Hearts  which  have 
suffered  have  a  right  to  what  the  world  may  call 
grief  and  sorrow,  but  what  is  really  a  quiet  com- 
munion with  those  whom  we  love,  and  whom  we 
can  find  no  longer  among  the  laughter  of 
the  happy.  MS. 


What  can  we  pray  for  ?  Not  for  special  gifts, 
but  only  for  God's  mercy.  We  do  not  know  what 
is  good  for  us,  and  for  others.     What  would  become 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  207 

of  the  world  if  all  our  prayers  were  granted  ?  And 
yet  it  is  good  to  pray — that  is,  to  live  in  all  our 
joys  and  sorrows,  with  God,  that  unknown  God 
whom  we  cannot  reason  with  but  whom  we  can 
love  and  trust.  Human  misery,  outward  and 
inward,  is  certainly  a  great  problem,  and  yet  one 
knows  from  one's  own  life  how  just  the  heaviest 
burdens  have  been  blessings.  The  soul  must  be 
furrowed  if  it  is  to  bear  fruit.  MS. 


What  is  the  tenure  of  all  our  happiness  ?  Are 
we  not  altogether  at  the  mercy  of  God  ?  Would  it 
not  be  fearful  to  live  for  one  day  unless  we  knew, 
and  saw,  and  felt  His  Presence  and  Wisdom  and 
Love  encompassing  us  on  all  sides  ?  If  we  once 
feel  that,  then  even  death,  even  the  death  of  those 
we  love  best  and  who  love  us  best,  loses  much  of 
its  terror:  it  is  part  and  parcel  of  one  great  system 
of  which  we  see  but  a  small  portion  here,  and  which 
without  death,  without  that  bridge  of  which  we  see 
here  but  the  first  arch,  would  seem  to  be  a  mere 
mockery.  That  is  why  I  said  to  you  it  is  well  that 
human  art  cannot  prolong  our  life  forever,  and  in 
that  sentiment  I  should  think  we  both  agree.  I 
have  felt  much  for  you,  more  than  I  cared  to  say. 
We  are  trained  differently,  but  we  are  all  trained 
for  some  good  purpose,  and  the  suffering  which  you 


2o8  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

have  undergone  is  to  me  like  deep  ploughing,  the 
promise  of  a  rich  harvest.  Life. 


There  is  a  large  and  secret  brotherhood  in  this 
world,  the  members  of  which  easily  recognise  each 
other,  without  any  visible  outward  sign.  It  is  the 
band  of  mourners.  The  members  of  this  brother- 
hood need  not  necessarily  wear  mourning;  they  can 
even  rejoice  with  the  joyful  and  they  seldom  sigh 
or  weep  when  others  see  them.  But  they  recognise 
and  understand  each  other,  without  uttering  a  word, 
like  tired  wanderers,  who,  climbing  a  steep  moun- 
tain, overtake  other  tired  wanderers,  and  pause, 
and  then  silently  go  on  again,  knowing  that  they  all 
hope  to  see  the  same  glorious  sunset  high  up  above. 
Their  countenances  reflect  a  soft  moonlight;  when 
they  speak,  one  thinks  of  the  whispering  of  the  leaves 
of  a  beech  forest  after  a  warm  spring  shower,  and 
as  the  rays  of  the  sun  light  up  the  drops  of  dew 
with  a  thousand  colours,  and  drink  them  up  from 
the  green  grass,  a  heavenly  light  seems  to  shine 
through  the  tears  of  the  mourners,  to  lighten  them 
and  lovingly  kiss  them  away.  Almost  everyone, 
sooner  or  later,  enters  this  brotherhood,  and  those 
who  enter  it  early  may  be  considered  fortunate, 
for  they  learn,  before  it  is  too  late,  that  all  which 
man  calls  his  own  is  only  lent  him  for  a  short  time, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  209 

and  the  ivy  of  their  affections  docs  not  cling  0 
deeply  and  so  strongly  to  the  old  walls  of  earthly 
happiness.  Ibid, 


We  cannot  know,  we  cannot  name  the  Divine, 
nor  can  we  understand  its  ways  as  manifested  in 
nature  and  human  life.  We  ask  why  there  should 
be  suffering  and  sin,  we  cannot  answer  the  question. 
All  we  can  say  is,  it  is  willed  to  be  so.  Some  help 
our  human  understanding  may  find,  however,  by 
simply  imagining  what  would  have  been  our  life 
if  the  power  of  evil  had  not  been  given  us.  It 
seems  to  me  that  in  that  case  we,  human  beings  as 
we  are,  should  never  have  had  a  conception  of 
what  is  meant  by  good:  we  should  have  been  like 
the  birds  in  the  air,  happier,  it  may  be,  but  better, 
no.  Or  if  suffering  had  always  been  reserved  for 
the  bad,  we  should  all  have  become  the  most  cun- 
ning angels.  Often  when  I  am  met  by  a  difficulty 
which  seems  insoluble,  I  try  that  experiment,  and 
say,  Let  us  see  what  would  happen  if  it  were  other- 
wise. Still,  I  confess  there  is  some  suffering  on 
earth  which  goes  beyond  all  understanding,  which 
even  the  truest  Christian  love  and  charity  seems 
unable  to  remove  or  mitigate.  It  can  teach  us 
one  thing  only,  that  we  are  blind,  and  that  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  we  lose  our  faith  in  a  dawn 


2io  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

which  will  drive  away  darkness,  fear  and  despair. 
Much,  no  doubt,  could  be  done  even  by  what  is 
now  communism,  but  what  in  earlier  days  was 
called  Christianity.  And  then  one  wonders 
whether  the  world  can  ever  again  become  truly 
Christian.  I  dare  not  call  myself  a  Christian.  I 
have  hardly  met  the  man  in  all  my  life  who  de- 
served that  name.  Again,  I  say,  let  us  do  our  best, 
knowing  all  the  time  that  our  best  is  a  mere  nothing. 

Ibid. 


THE  SOUL 

The  name  of  the  immortal  element  (in  man)  was 
not  given  to  man  as  a  gratuitous  gift.  It  had  to 
be  gained,  like  the  name  of  God,  in  the  sweat  of 
his  face.  Before  man  could  say  that  he  believed 
his  soul  to  be  immortal,  he  had  to  discover  that 
there  was  a  soul  in  man.  It  required  as  great  an 
effort  to  form  such  a  word  as  anima,  breath,  and 
to  make  it  signify  the  infinite  in  man,  as  to  form 
such  a  word  as  diva,  bright,  and  to  make  it  signify 
the  infinite  in  nature.  Gifford  Lectures,  III. 


To  us  the  two  words  "body"  and  "sour'  are  so 
familiar  that  it  seems  almost  childish  to  ask  how 
man  came  at  first  to  speak  of  body  and  soul.  But 
what  did  he  mean  by  soul  ?  What  do  we  ourselves 
mean  by  soul?  Think  of  the  many  meanings 
contained  in  our  word  soul.  Our  soul  may  mean 
the  living  soul;  it  may  mean  the  sentient  soul; 
it  may  mean  the  seat  of  the  passions  whether  good 
or  bad;  it  may  mean  the  organ  of  thought;  and 
lastly,  the  immortal  element  in  man.  The  question 
we  have  to  ask  is  not,  how  man  arrived  at  a  name 

211 


2i2  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

for  soul,  but  how  he  came  for  the  first  time  to  speak 
of  something  different  from  the  body.  Ibid. 


The  discovery  of  the  soul,  the  first  attempts  at 
naming  the  soul,  started  everywhere  from  the  sim- 
plest observations  of  material  facts.  The  lesson  can- 
not be  inculcated  too  often  that  the  whole  wealth 
of  our  most  abstract  and  spiritual  words  comes 
from  a  small  number  of  material  or  concrete  terms. 

Ibid. 

We  see  that  the  way  which  led  to  the  discovery 
of  a  soul  was  pointed  out  to  man  as  clearly  as  was 
the  way  which  led  him  to  the  discovery  of  the  gods. 
It  was  chiefly  the  breath,  which  almost  visibly  left 
the  body  at  the  time  of  death,  that  suggested  the 
name  of  breath,  and  afterward  the  thought  of 
something  breathing,  living,  perceiving,  willing, 
remembering,  and  thinking  within  us.  The  name 
came  first,  the  name  of  the  material  breath.  By 
dropping  what  seemed  material  even  in  this  airy 
breath,  there  remained  the  first  vague  and  airy 
concept  of  what  we  call  soul.  Ibid. 


The  worship  of  the  spirits  of  the  departed  which, 
under  various  forms,  was  so  widely  spread  over 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  213 

the  ancient  world,  could  not  but  accustom  the 
human  mind  to  the  idea  that  there  was  something 
in  man  which  deserved  such  worship.  The  souls 
of  the  departed  were  lifted  higher  and  higher,  till 
at  last  they  reached  the  highest  stage  which 
existed  in  the  human  mind,  namely  that  of  divine 
beings,  in  the  ancient  sense  of  that  word.     Ibid. 


The  problem  of  uniting  the  invisible  and  visible 
worlds  presented  itself  under  three  principal 
aspects.  The  first  was  the  problem  of  creation, 
or  how  the  invisible  Primal  Cause  could  ever  come 
in  contact  with  visible  matter  and  impart  to  it 
form  and  meaning.  The  second  problem  was 
the  relation  between  God  and  the  individual  soul. 
The  third  problem  was  the  return  of  the  soul  from 
the  visible  to  the  invisible  world,  from  the  prison 
of  its  mortal  body  to  the  freedom  of  a  heavenly 
paradise.  The  individual  soul  as  dwelling  in  a 
material  body  forms  part  of  the  created  world,  and 
the  question  of  the  return  of  the  soul  to  God  is 
therefore  closely  connected  with  that  of  its  creation 
by,  or  its  emanation  from,  God. 

Gi fjord  Lectures,   IV. 

When  the  original  oneness  of  earth  and  heaven, 
of  the  human  and  the  divine  natures,  has  once  been 


214  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

discovered,  the  question  of  the  return  of  the  soul 
to  God  assumes  a  new  character.  It  is  no  longer 
a  question  of  an  ascension  to  heaven,  an  approach 
to  the  throne  of  God,  an  ecstatic  vision  of  God, 
and  a  life  in  a  heavenly  Paradise.  The  vision  of 
God  is  rather  the  knowledge  of  the  divine  element 
in  the  soul,  and  of  the  consubstantiality  of  the 
divine  and  human  natures.  Immortality  has  no 
longer  to  be  asserted,  because  there  can  be 
no  death  for  what  is  divine  and  therefore 
immortal  in  man.  There  is  life  eternal  and 
peace  eternal  for  all  who  feel  the  divine  Spirit 
as  dwelling  within  them,  and  have  thus  become 
the  children  of  God.  Ibid. 


No  doubt  the  soul  must  find  it  difficult  in  child- 
hood to  accustom  itself  to  the  human  body,  and  it 
takes  many  years  before  it  is  quite  at  home.  Then 
for  a  time  all  goes  well,  and  the  soul  hardly  knows 
it  is  hidden  in  a  strange  garment  till  the  body 
begins  to  be  weakly,  and  can  no  longer  do  all  the 
soul  wishes,  and  presses  it  everywhere,  so  that  the 
soul  appears  to  lose  all  outward  freedom  and  move- 
ment. Then  one  can  well  understand  that  we 
long  to  be  gone,  and  death  is  a  true  deliverance. 
God  always  knows  best  when  the  right  time  comes. 

Life% 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  215 

Let  us  remember  that  we  do  not  know  what  the 
soul  was  before  this  life — nay,  even  what  it  was 
during  the  first  years  of  our  childhood.  Yet  we 
believe  on  very  fair  evidence  that  what  we  call  our 
soul  existed  from  the  moment  of  our  birth.  What 
ground  have  we,  then,  to  doubt  that  it  was  even 
before  that  moment  ?  To  ascribe  to  the  soul  a 
beginning  on  our  birthday  would  be  the  same  as 
to  claim  for  it  an  end  on  the  day  of  our  death,  for 
whatever  has  a  beginning  has  an  end.  If  then  in 
the  absence  of  any  other  means  of  knowledge,  we 
may  take  refuge  in  analogy,  might  we  not  say  that 
it  will  be  with  the  soul  hereafter  as  it  has  been  here, 
and  that  the  soul  after  its  earthly  setting  will  rise 
again,  much  as  it  rose  here  ?  This  is  not  a  syllogism; 
it  is  analogy,  and  in  a  cosmos  like  ours  analogy  has 
a  right  to  claim  some  weight,  in  the  absence  of  any 
proof  to  the  contrary.  Last  Essays. 


There  is  a  question  which  has  probably  been 
asked  by  every  human  heart:  "Granting  that 
the  soul  cannot,  without  self-contradiction,  be 
mortal,  will  that  soul  be  itself,  know  itself,  and 
will  it  know  others  whom  it  has  known  before?" 
For  the  next  life,  it  is  said,  would  not  be  worth 
living  if  the  soul  did  not  recollect  itself,  recognise 
not  only  itself,  but  those  whom  it  has  known  and 


216  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

loved  on  earth.  Here  analogy  alone  can  supply 
some  kind  of  answer:  "It  will  be  hereafter  as  it 
has  been"  is  not,  in  the  absence  of  any  evidence 
to  the  contrary,  an  argument  that  can  be  treated 
with  contempt.  Our  soul  here  may  be  said  to 
have  risen  without  any  recollection  of  itself  and 
of  the  circumstances  of  its  former  existence.  But 
it  has  within  it  the  consciousness  of  its  eternity, 
and  the  conception  of  a  beginning  is  as  impossible 
for  it  as  that  of  an  end,  and  if  souls  were  to  meet 
again  hereafter  as  they  met  in  this  life,  as  they 
loved  in  this  life,  without  knowing  that  they  had 
met  and  loved  before,  would  the  next  life  be  so 
very  different  from  what  this  life  has  been  here  on 
earth — would  it  be  so  utterly  intolerable  and 
really  not  worth  living  ?  Ibid. 


When  the  soul  has  once  reached  that  union 
with  God,  nay,  when  it  lives  in  the  constant  pres- 
ence of  God,  evil  becomes  almost  impossible. 
We  know  that  most  of  the  evil  deeds  to  which 
human  nature  is  prone  are  possible  in  the  dark 
only.  Before  the  eyes  of  another  human  being, 
more  particularly  of  a  beloved  being,  they  become 
at  once  impossible.  How  much  more  in  the  real 
presence  of  a  real  and  really  beloved  God,  as  felt 
by  the  true  mystic,  not  merely  as  a  phrase,  but  as 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  217 

a  fact  ?  As  long  as  there  is  no  veil  between  him 
and  God,  evil  thoughts,  evil  words,  and  evil  deeds 
are  simply  impossible  to  one  who  feels  the  actual 
presence  of  God.  Nor  is  he  troubled  any  longer 
by  questions,  such  as  how  the  world  was  created, 
how  evil  came  into  the  world.  He  is  satisfied 
with  the  Divine  Love  that  embraces  his  soul; 
he  has  all  that  he  can  desire,  his  whole  life  is  hid 
through  Christ  in  God,  death  is  swallowed  up  in 
victory,  the  mortal  has  become  immortal,  neither 
death  nor  life,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  is  able  to  separate  his  soul  from  the  love  of 
God.  Gifjord  Lectures,  IV. 


THEOSOPHY 

This  venerable  name  (Theosophy)  so  well 
known  among  early  Christian  thinkers,  as  ex- 
pressing the  highest  conception  of  God  within 
the  reach  of  the  human  mind,  has  of  late  been  so 
greatly  misappropriated  that  it  is  high  time  to 
restore  it  to  its  proper  function.  It  should  be 
known  once  for  all  that  one  may  call  oneself  a 
theosophist  without  .  .  .  believing  in  any 
occult  sciences  and  black  art. 

Gi fjord  Lectures,  IV. 

There  is  nothing  esoteric  in  Buddhism.  Bud- 
dhism is  the  very  opposite  of  esoteric — it  is  a  religion 
for  the  people  at  large,  for  the  poor,  the  suffering, 
the  ill-treated.  Buddha  protests  against  the  very 
idea  of  keeping  anything  secret.  There  was  much 
more  of  that  esoteric  teaching  in  Brahmanism. 
There  was  the  system  of  caste,  which  deprived  the 
Sudras,  at  least,  of  many  religious  privileges. 
But  I  do  say  that  even  in  Brahmanism  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  an  esoteric  interpretation  of  the 
Sastras.  The  Sastras  have  but  one  meaning,  and 
all  who  had  been  properly  prepared  by  education 

218 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  219 

had  access  to  them.  There  are  some  artificial 
poems,  which  are  so  written  as  to  admit  of  two 
interpretations.  They  are  very  wonderful,  hut 
they  have  nothing  to  do  with  philosophical  doc- 
trines. Again  there  are  erotic  poems  in  Sanscrit 
which  are  explained  as  celebrating  the  love  and 
union  between  the  soul  and  God.  But  all  this  is 
perfectly  well  known,  there  is  no  mystery  in  it. 

Life. 


TRUTH 

What  is  wanted  is  the  power  of  sifting  evidence, 
and  a  simple  love  of  truth.  Whatever  value  we 
may  attach  to  our  own  most  cherished  convic- 
tions there  is  something  more  cherished  than  all 
of  them,  and  that  is  a  perfect  trust  in  truth,  if 
once  we  have  seen  it.  Last  Essays. 


True  reverence  does  not  consist  in  declaring  a 
subject,  because  it  is  dear  to  us,  to  be  unfit  for 
free  and  honest  inquiry;  far  from  it!  True  rev- 
erence .  is  shown  in  treating  every  subject,  how- 
ever sacred,  however  dear  to  us,  with  perfect 
confidence,  without  fear  and  without  favour;  with 
tenderness  and  love,  by  all  means,  but,  before  all, 
with  unflinching  and  uncompromising  loyalty  to 
truth.  Science  of  Religion. 


Do  we  lose  anything  if  we  find  that  what  we 
hold  to  be  the  most  valuable  truth  is  shared  in 
and  supported  by  millions  of  human  beings  ? 
Ancien    philosophers  were  most  anxious  to  sup- 

220 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION 


221 


port  their  own  belief  in  God  by  the  unanimous 
testimony  of  mankind.  They  made  the  greatest 
efforts  to  prove  that  there  was  no  race  so  degraded 
and  barbarous  as  to  be  without  a  belief  in  some- 
thing divine.  Some  modern  theologians  seem  to 
grudge  to  all  religions  but  their  own  the  credit  of 
having  a  pure  and  true,  nay,  any  concept  of  God 
at  all,  quite  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  a  truth  does 
not  cease  to  be  a  truth  because  it  is  accepted 
universally.  I  know  no  heresy  more  dangerous 
to  true  religion  than  this  denial  that  a  true  concept 
of  God  is  within  the  reach  of  every  human  being, 
is,  in  fact,  the  common  inheritance  of  mankind, 
however  fearfully  it  may  have  been  misused  and 
profaned  by  Christian  and  un-Christian  nations. 

Gifford  Lectures,  II. 

If  Comparative  Theology  has  taught  us  any- 
thing, it  has  taught  us  that  there  is  a  common 
fund  of  truth  in  all  religions,  derived  from  a  rev- 
elation that  was  neither  confined  to  one  nation, 
nor  miraculous  in  the  usual  sense  of  that  word, 
and  that  even  minute  coincidences  between  the 
doctrines,  nay,  between  the  external  accessories 
of  various  religions,  need  not  be  accounted 
for  at  once  by  disguised  borrowings,  but  can  be 
explained  by  other  and  more  natural  causes. 

Ibid. 


222  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

Can  there  be  anything  higher  and  better  than 
truth  ?  Is  any  kind  of  religion  possible  without 
an  unquestioning  trust  in  truth  ?  No  one  knows 
what  it  is  to  believe  who  has  not  learnt  to  believe 
in  truth,  for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  for  the  sake  of 
truth  only.  Gifjord  Lectures,  III. 


It  may  be  quite  right  to  guard  against  dangers, 
whether  real  or  imaginary,  so  long  as  it  is  possible. 
But  when  it  is  no  longer  possible,  the  right  thing 
is  to  face  an  enemy  bravely.  Very  often  the 
enemy  will  turn  out  a  friend  in  disguise.  We 
cannot  be  far  wrong,  if  we  are  only  quite  honest, 
but  if  we  are  once  not  quite  honest  over  a  few 
things,  we  shall  soon  become  dishonest  over  many 
things.  In  teaching  on  religion,  even  on  Natural 
Religion,  we  must  look  neither  right  nor  left,  but 
look  all  facts  straight  in  the  face  to  see  whether 
they  are  facts  or  not,  and,  if  they  are  facts,  to 
find  out  what  they  mean.  Ibid. 


Some  people  say  that  they  can  derive  no  help, 
no  comfort,  from  what  they  call  spiritual  only. 
Spiritual  only — think  what  that  only  would  mean, 
if  it  could  have  any  meaning  at  all.  We  might 
as  well  say  of  light  that  it  is  light  only,  and  that 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  223 

what  we  want  is  the  shadow  which  we  can  grasp. 
So  long  as  we  know  the  shadow  only,  and  not  the 
light  that  throws  it,  the  shadow  only  is  real,  and 
not  the  light.  But  when  we  have  once  turned  our 
head  and  seen  the  light,  the  light  only  is  real  and 
substantial,  and  not  the  shadow.  Ibid. 


We  find  in  the  Upanishads  what  has  occupied 
the  thoughts  of  man  at  all  times,  what  occupies 
them  now  and  will  occupy  them  forever — a  search 
after  truth,  a  desire  to  discover  the  Eternal  that 
underlies  the  Ephemeral,  a  longing  to  find  in  the 
human  heart  the  assurance  of  a  future  life,  and 
an  attempt  to  reunite  the  bond  which  once  held 
the  human  and  the  divine  together,  the  true  atone- 
ment between  God  and  man.  Ibid. 


We  have  toiled  for  many  years  and  been  troubled 
with  many  questionings,  but  what  is  the  end  of 
it  all?  We  must  learn  to  become  simple  again 
like  little  children.  That  is  all  we  have  a  right 
to  be:  for  this  life  was  meant  to  be  the  childhood 
of  our  souls,  and  the  more  we  try  to  be  what  we 
were  meant  to  be,  the  better  for  us.  Let  us  use 
the  powers  of  our  minds  with  the  greatest  freedom 
and  love  of  truth,  but  let  us  never  forget  that  we 


224  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

are,  as  Newton  said,  like  children  playing  on  the 
seashore,  while  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lies  undis- 
covered before  us.  Life. 


Nothing  I  like  better  than  when  I  meet  a  man 
who  differs  from  me;  he  always  gives  me  some- 
thing, and  for  that  I  am  grateful.  Nor  am  I  at 
all  so  hopeless  as  many  people,  who  imagine  that 
two  people  who  differ  can  never  arrive  at  a  mutual 
understanding.  .  .  .  Why  do  people  differ, 
considering  that  they  all  begin  with  the  same  love 
of  truth  and  are  all  influenced  by  the  same  envi- 
ronment ?  Well,  they  often  differ  because  one  is 
ignorant  of  facts  which  the  other  knows  and  has 
specially  studied.  .  .  .  But  in  most  cases 
people  differ  because  they  use  their  words  loosely, 
and  because  they  mix  up  different  subjects  instead 
of  treating  them  one  by  one.  Ibid. 


THE  WILL  OF  GOD 

Through  my  whole  life  I  have  learned  this  one 
lesson — that  nothing  can  happen  to  us,  unless  it 
be  the  will  of  God.  There  can  be  no  disappoint- 
ment in  life  if  we  but  learn  to  submit  our  will  to 
the  will  of  God.  Let  us  wait  for  a  little  [while, 
and  to  those  whose  eyes  are  turned  to  God 
and  eternity  the  longest  life  is  but  a  little 
while — let  us  wait,  then,  in  faith,  hope,  and 
charity;  these  three  abide,  but  the  greatest  of 
these  is  charity.  Life. 


Whatever  happens  to  us  is  always  the  best  for 
us,  even  if  we  do  not  at  once  understand  and 
perceive  it.  Mo. 


Surely  everything  is  ordered,  and  ordered  for 
our  true  interests.  It  would  be  fearful  to  think 
that  anything,  however  small  in  appearance, 
could  happen  to  us  without  the  will  of  God.  It 
you  admit  the  idea  of  chance  or  unmeaning  events 
anywhere,  the  whole  organisation  of  our  life   in 

225 


226  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

God  is  broken  to  pieces.  We  are,  we  don't  know 
where,  unless  we  rest  in  God  and  give  Him  praise 
for  all  things.  We  must  trust  in  Him  whether 
He  sends  us  joy  or  sorrow.  If  He  sends  us  joy, 
let  us  be  careful.  Happiness  is  often  sent  to  try 
us,  and  is  by  no  means  a  proof  of  our  having 
deserved  it.  Nor  is  sorrow  always  a  sign  of  God's 
displeasure,  but  frequently,  nay,  always,  of  His 
love  and  compassion.  We  must  each  interpret 
our  life  as  best  we  can,  but  we  must  be  sure  that 
its  deepest  purpose  is  to  bring  us  back  to  God 
through  Christ.  Death  is  a  condition  of  our  life 
on  earth;  it  brings  the  creature  back  to  its  Creator. 
The  creature  groans  at  the  sight  of  death,  but 
God  will  not  forsake  us  at  the  last,  He  who  has 
never  forsaken  us  from  the  first  breath  of  our  life 
on  earth.  If  it  is  His  will  we  may  live  to  serve 
Him  here  on  earth  for  many  happy  years 
to  come.  If  He  takes  either  of  us  away,  His 
name  be  praised.  We  live  in  the  shadow  of 
death,  but  that  shadow  should  not  darken  the 
brightness  of  our  life.  It  is  the  shadow  of 
the  hand  of  our  God  and  Father  and  the 
earnest  of  a  higher,  brighter  life  hereafter. 
Our  Father  in  Heaven  loves  us  more  than  any 
husband  can  love  his  wife,  or  any  mother  her 
child.  His  hand  can  never  hurt  us,  so  let  us  hope 
and  trust  always.  Life. 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  227 

Our  lives  are  in  the  hands  of  a    Father   who 

knows  what  is  best  for  all  of  us.  Death  is  painful 
to  the  creature,  but  in  God  there  is  no  death,  no 
dying;  dying  belongs  to  life,  and  is  only  a  pas: 
to  a  more  perfect  world  into  which  we  all  go  when 
God  calls  us.  When  one's  happiness  is  perfect, 
then  the  thought  of  death  often  frightens  one, 
but  even  that  is  conquered  by  the  feeling  and  the 
faith  that  all  is  best  as  it  is,  and  that  God  loves 
us  more  than  even  a  father  and  mother  can  love 
us.  It  is  a  beautiful  world  in  which  we  live,  but 
it  is  only  beautiful  and  only  really  our  home 
when  we  feel  the  nearness  of  God  at  each  moment 
and  lean  on  Him  and  trust  in  His  love.  .  .  . 
When  the  hour  of  parting  comes,  we  know  that 
love  never  dies  and  that  God  who  bound  us  closely 
together  in  this  life  will  bring  us  together  where 
there  is  no  more  parting.  MS. 


WONDER 

There  are  few  sensations  more  pleasant  than 
that  of  wondering.  We  have  all  experienced  it 
in  childhood,  in  youth,  in  manhood,  and  we  may 
hope  that  even  in  our  old  age  this  affection  of 
the  mind  will  not  entirely  pass  away.  If  we 
analyse  this  feeling  of  wonder  carefully,  we  shall 
find  that  it  consists  of  two  elements.  What  we 
mean  by  wondering  is  not  only  that  we  are  startled 
or  stunned — that  I  should  call  the  merely  passive 
element  of  wonder.  When  we  say  "I  wonder," 
we  confess  that  we  are  taken  aback,  but  there  is 
a  secret  satisfaction  mixed  up  with  our  feeling  of 
surprise,  a  kind  of  hope,  nay,  almost  of  certainty, 
that  sooner  or  later  the  wonder  will  cease,  that 
our  senses  or  our  mind  will  recover,  will  grapple 
with  these  novel  expressions  or  experiences,  grasp 
them,  it  may  be,  know  them,  and  finally  triumph 
over  them.  In  fact,  we  wonder  at  the  riddles  of 
nature,  whether  animate  or  inanimate,  with  a  firm 
conviction  that  there  is  a  solution  to  them  all, 
even  though  we  ourselves  may  not  be  able  to  find 
it.  Wonder,  no  doubt,  arises  from  ignorance, 
but  from  a  peculiar  kind  of  ignorance,  from  what 

228 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  229 

might  be  called  a  fertile  ignorance;  an  ignorance 
which,  if  we  look  back  at  the  history  of  most  of 
our  sciences,  will  be  found  to  have  been  the  mother 
of  all  human  knowledge. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 


WORDS 

What  people  call  "mere  words"  are  in  truth 
the  monuments  of  the  fiercest  intellectual  battles, 
triumphant  arches  of  the  grandest  victories  won 
by  the  intellect  of  man.  When  man  had  formed 
names  for  body  and  soul,  for  father  and  mother, 
and  not  till  then,  did  the  first  art  of  human  history 
begin.  Not  till  there  were  names  for  right  and 
wrong,  for  God  and  man,  could  there  be  any- 
thing worthy  of  the  name  of  human  society. 
Every  new  word  was  a  discovery,  and  these  early 
discoveries,  if  but  properly  understood,  are  more 
important  to  us  than  the  greatest  conquests  of  the 
kings  of  Egypt  and  Babylon.  Not  one  of  our 
greatest  explorers  has  unearthed  more  splendid 
palaces  than  the  etymologist.  Every  word  is  the 
palace  of  a  human  thought,  and  in  scientific 
etymology  we  possess  the  charm  with  which  to 
call  these  ancient  thoughts  back  to  life. 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop. 

Cannot  a  concept  exist  without  a  word  ?  Cer- 
tainly not,  though  in  order  to  meet  every  possible 
objection  we  may  say  that  no  concept  can  exist 

230 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  231 

without  a  sign,  whether  it  be  a  word  or  anything 
else.  And  if  it  is  asked  whether  the  cona  pt 
exists  first  and  the  sign  comes  afterward,  I  should 
say  No:  the  two  are  simultaneous,  but  in  strict 
logic  the  sign,  being  the  condition  of  a  concept, 
may  really  be  said  to  come  first.  After  a  time, 
words  may  be  dropped,  and  it  is  then,  when  we  try 
to  remember  the  old  word  that  gave  birth  to  our 
concept,  that  we  are  led  to  imagine  that  concepts 
came  first  and  words  afterward.  I  know  how 
difficult  it  is  to  see  this  clearly.  We  are  so  accus- 
tomed to  think  without  words  that  we  can  hardly 
realise  the  fact  that  originally  no  conceptual 
thought  was  possible  without  these  or  other  signs. 

Gi fjord  Lectures ,  I. 


WORK 

If  you  have  found  a  work  to  which  you  are 
ready  to  sacrifice  the  whole  of  your  life,  and  if  you 
have  faith  in  yourselves,  others  will  have  faith 
in  you,  and,  sooner  or  later,  a  work  that  must 
be  done  will  be  done.  Gifford  Lectures,  II. 


What  flimsy  things  the  so-called  pleasures  of 
life  are — how  little  in  them  that  lasts.  To  delight 
in  doing  one's  work  is  life — that  is  what  helps  us 
on,  though  the  road  is  sometimes  very  stiff  and 
tiring — uphill  rather,  it  would  seem,  than  downhill, 
and  yet  downhill  it  is.  MS. 


A  distaste  for  work  is  only  another  name  for  a 
distaste  for  duty,  a  disregard  for  those  command- 
ments which  hold  society  together,  a  disregard  of 
the  commandments  of  God.  No  doubt  there  is 
that  reward  in  work  that  after  a  time  it  ceases  to 
be  distasteful,  and  like  many  a  bitter  medicine 
becomes  liked,  but  that  reward  is  vouchsafed  to 
honest  work  only.  MS. 

232 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  233 

Work  is  the  best  healer  of  sorrow.  In  grief  or 
disappointment  try  hard  work;  it  will  not  fail  you. 

Autobiography. 

No  sensible  man  ought  to  care  about  posthumous 
praise,  or  posthumous  blame.  Enough  for  the  day 
is  the  evil  thereof.  Our  contemporaries  are  our 
right  judges,  our  peers  have  to  give  their  votes  in 
the  great  academies  and  learned  societies,  and  if 
they  on  the  whole  are  not  dissatisfied  with  the 
little  we  have  done,  often  under  far  greater  diffi- 
culties than  the  world  was  aware  of,  why  should 
we  care  for  the  distant  future  ?  Ibid. 


Put  your  whole  heart,  or  your  whole  love  into 
your  work.  Half-hearted  work  is  really  worse 
than    no   work.  Last  Essays. 


Much  of  the  best  work  in  the  world  is  done  by 
those  whose  names  remain  unknown,  who  work 
because  life's  greatest  bliss  is  work,  and  who 
require  no  reward  beyond  the  consciousness  that 
they  have  enlarged  the  knowledge  of  mankind  and 
contributed  their  share  to  the  final  triumph  of 
honesty   and   truth. 

Chips  from  a  German  /forks  ho  p. 


234  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

True  immortality  (of  fame)  is  the  immortality 
of  the  work  done  by  man,  which  nothing  can  make 
undone,  which  lives,  works  on,  grows  on  forever. 
It  is  good  to  ourselves  to  remember  and  honour 
the  names  of  our  ancestors  and  benefactors,  but 
to  them,  depend  upon  it,  the  highest  reward  was 
not  the  hope  of  fame,  but  their  faith  in  themselves, 
their  faith  in  their  work,  their  faith  that  nothing 
really  good  can  ever  perish,  and  that  Right  and 
Reason  must  in  the  end  prevail.  Ibid. 


It  is  given  to  few  scholars  only  to  be  allowed  to 
devote  the  whole  of  their  time  and  labour  to  the 
one  subject  in  which  they  feel  the  deepest  interest. 
We  have  all  to  fight  the  battle  of  life  before  we  can 
hope  to  secure  a  quiet  cell  in  which  to  work  in  the 
cause  of  learning  and  truth.  Ibid. 


What  author  has  ever  said  the  last  word  he 
wanted  to  say,  and  who  has  not  had  to  close  his 
eyes  before  he  could  write  finis  to  his  work  ? 

Autobiography. 


THE  WORLD 

There  is  no  other  Christian  explanation  of  the 
world  than  that  God  thought  and  uttered  it,  and 
that  man  follows  in  life  and  thought  the  thoughts 
of  God.  We  must  not  forget  that  all  our  knowledge 
and  hold  of  the  world  are  again  nothing  hut 
thoughts,  which  we  transform  under  the  law  of 
causality  into  objective  realities.  It  was  this 
unswerving  dependence  on  God  in  thought  and 
life  that  made  Jesus  what  He  was,  and  what  we 
should  be  if  we  only  tried,  viz.:  children  of  God. 

Silesian  Horseberd. 

I  cannot  help  seeing  order,  law,  reason  or 
Logos  in  the  world,  and  I  cannot  account  for  it  by 
merely  ex  post  events,  call  them  what  you  like — sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  natural  selection,  or  anything  else. 

Last  Essays. 

Think  only  what  it  was  to  believe  in  an  order  of 
the  world,  though  it  be  no  more  at  first  than  a 
belief  that  the  sun  will  never  overstep  his  bounds. 
It  was  all  the  difference  between  a  chaos  and  a 
cosmos,  between  the  blind  play  of  chance  and  an 

235 


236  LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

intelligible  and  therefore  an  intelligent  providence. 
How  many  souls,  even  now  when  everything  else 
has  failed  them,  when  they  have  parted  with  the 
most  cherished  convictions  of  their  childhood, 
when  their  faith  in  man  has  been  poisoned,  and 
when  the  apparent  triumph  of  all  that  is  selfish, 
ignoble,  and  hideous  has  made  them  throw  up 
the  cause  of  truth,  of  righteousness  and  innocence 
as  no  longer  worth  fighting  for,  at  least  in  this 
world;  how  many,  I  say,  have  found  their  last 
peace  and  comfort  in  the  contemplation  of  the 
order  of  the  world,  whether  manifested  in  the 
unvarying  movement  of  the  stars,  or  revealed  in 
the  unvarying  number  of  the  petals  and  stamens 
and  pistils  of  the  smallest  forget-me-not.  How 
many  have  felt  that  to  belong  to  this  cosmos,  to 
this  beautiful  order  of  nature,  is  something  at 
least  to  rest  on,  something  to  trust,  something  to 
believe,  when  everything  else  has  failed.  To  us, 
this  perception  of  law  and  order  in  the  world  may 
seem  very  little,  but  to  the  ancient  dwellers  on 
earth,  who  had  little  else  to  support  them,  it  was 
everything — because,  if  once  perceived,  if  once 
understood,  it  could  never  be  taken  from  them. 

Hibbert  Lectures. 

We  must  learn  to  see  a  meaning  in  everything. 
No  doubt  we  cannot  always  see  cause  and  effect, 


LIFE  AND  RELIGION  237 

and  it  is  well  we  cannot.  It  is  quite  true  that  we 
do  not  always  get  our  deserts.  And  yet  we  must 
believe  that  we  do — only  if  we  knew  it,  the  whole 
fabric  of  the  world  would  be  destroyed,  there  would 
be  neither  virtue  nor  vice  in  the  whole  world,  noth- 
ing but  calculation.  We  should  avoid  the  rails 
laid  down  by  the  world  because  we  should  know 
that  the  engine  would  be  sure  to  come  and  mangle 
us.  In  this  way  the  world  holds  together,  and  it 
could  not  in  any  other  way.  Life. 


There  is  to  me  a  beauty  and  mystery  and 
sanctity  about  flowers,  and  when  I  see  them  come 
and  go,  no  one  knows  whence  and  whither,  I  ask 
what  more  miracles  do  we  want — what  better,  more 
beautiful,  more  orderly  world  could  we  wish  to 
belong  to  than  that  by  which  we  are  surrounded 
and  supported  on  all  sides  ?  Where  is  there  a 
flaw  or  a  fault  ?  Then  why  should  we  fear  unless 
the  flaws  are  within  us,  and  we  will  not  see  the 
blessing  and  the  rest  which  we  might  enjoy  if  we 
only  trusted  to  the  Author  of  all  that  beauty,  order 
and  wisdom  about  us.  It  is  a  perfect  sin  not  to  be 
happy  in  this  world,  and  how  much  of  the  miser)' 
which  there  is,  is  the  work  of  men,  or  could  be 
removed  by  men,  if  they  would  but  work  together 
for  each   other's  good.  JbiJ. 


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